LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. # 



! UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. ! 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



AN APPEAL 



BEHALF OP FAMILY WORSHIP; 



PEATERS AO HYMS, 



FOR FAMILY US 




BY CHARLES F. DEEMS, 

EDITOR OF THE SOUTHERN METHODIST PULPIT. 



*' Tlie God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.' 



M. W. DODD, PUBLISHER, 

Corner of City HaU Square and Spruce Street. 

18 5 1. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by 
M. W. DODD, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Sonthern 
District of New York. 



E. O.JENKINS, Trint. and Ster. 
114 Nassau st. 



TO MY FATHER, 

IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THAT 
HOME-ALTAR 
AT WHICH WERE SPENT 
MY INFANCY AND BOYHOOD, 
AND 

TO MY CHILDREN, 
IN THE EARNEST HOPE THAT 

GOD 

WILL HAVE A PLACE IN ALL THE DWELLINGS 
OF OUR GENERATIONS, 
IS INSCRIBED 
THIS MANUAL, WHICH, FIRST GIVEN 
TO CHRIST IN PRAYER, 
IS NOW OFFERED 
TO HIS CHUR-CH IN HUMILITY. 



PREFACE. 



If the writer of these pages were not aware of a neg- 
lect of the imperative duty to pray with their fami- 
lies existing among the members of the chm'ch of 
which he is now pastor, if he had not seen this else- 
where, if his brethren in the ministry had not informed 
him that it is painfully extensive among the families of 
our own denomination throughout the land, if he had not 
learned from the ministers of other denominations that 
the same sad neglect is deadening their churches and 
breaking the power of the Gospel among them, these 
sheets would never have been written. But knowing 
these things, and hoping to be able to say what might 
induce at least one family to come back to the good 
old ways of our pious ancestors, he has prepared this 
appeal. 

When urged upon this subject, many of our com- 
municants excuse themselves upon the ground that 
1* 



vi 



PREFACE. 



they " have not the abihty." An attempt to reply to 
this excuse is made in the body of the appeaL Another 
reply is given in the addition of forms of prayer suitable 
for domestic worship. It will not avail to say, " But 
I am opposed to forms of prayer." That may be ; 
but when it is manifest from a man's own statement, 
if he is not mistaken, or endeavoring to deceive, that 
he cannot lead his family by prayers of his own, and 
when it is also absolutely certain that he must conduct 
family prayer in some manner, or live with those he 
loves under the displeasure of his righteous Judge, 
there is no other alternative. The humble opinion of 
the present writer is, that it is best for the head of a 
family to use his own language in prayer, and to adapt 
his petitions to the condition and spiritual necessities 
of his family ; but where he cannot do this, he should 
use forms. The Scriptures leave us at liberty in this 
matter ; but in the Primitive Church it appears to have 
been the custom to unite both methods. This plan is 
adopted in the present instance. Prayers which the 
author beheves to be scriptural, embodying many of 
the forms of sound words which the Holy Ghost Him- 
self has given, are, with all deference, tendered to the 



PREFACE. 



vii 



Christian families wlio may examine this book ; but in 
them all there is space left and indicated by bra fkets, 
[ ], where the person who leads the devotion may 
introduce any prayers more particularly adapted to the 
circumstances and exigencies of the family. 

For those who do not choose to read the whole Bi- 
ble consecutively in their families, there is given a Table 
of Lessons, which embrace, perhaps, those portions of 
the sacred Scriptures likely to be most profitable when 
read aloud. For convenience, a few Hymns, taken from 
the books of the several denominations, have been 
added. 

So far as the author is aware, there is not a word in 
the Appeal, the Prayers, or the Hymns, which will be 
found to make the book unsuitable for use in a family 
adopting the faith of any of the Evangelical denomi- 
nations. He has not sought to prepare a work which 
shall be suited to any particular ecclesiastical meridian, 
but such a simple manual as may be used with profit 
by any who are striving to serve the Lord in humility 
and godly fear. 

If only one family shall be induced hereby to set 
up an altar for God in their house, the prayer of the 
writer will be answered, and his labor richly rewarded. 



Vlll PREFACE. 

A considerable portion of this volume had been 
prepared before the author received from the Presby- 
terian Board of Publication, "Thoughts on Family 
Worship," by Dr. Jas. W. Alexander, an excellent work, 
which will have, because it should have, an extensive 
circulation. A very interesting little book on the same 
subject, by the Rev. James Hamilton, of London, is 
entitled, " The Church in the House." 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



AN APPEAL. 

In as short a space as so important a subject 
will allow, we propose to call the attention of 
heads of families generally to the duty of conduct- 
ing Domestic Worship, 

§ PRIVILEGE. 

If it were known that all who are members of 
the Church rightly regarded the things of Chris- 
tianity, that all who name the name of Christ had 
His love constantly shed abroad in their hearts, 
perhaps speakers and writers would cease to pre- 
sent this subject in the light of duty^ and would, 
instead, unite with all good people, especially with 
all Christian parents, in rejoicing in the great priv- 
ilege which the Head of the Church has granted 
to us and to our children. It would really seem 
strange that an exercise so consonant with all the 



10 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



voice of the Bible, so consistent with all the pro- 
fessions of Christians, so marked with lovely and 
holy results, should be neglected by any father 
who has love for his God or love for his children. 
And yet the fact that there are thousands of fami- 
lies in this land, whose heads are members of the 
Christian Church, and by whom no act of domestic 
worship has ever been performed, impresses us 
with the necessity of callmg immediate and close 
attention to a matter affecting so vastly the inter- 
ests of the Church of Christ. 

§ NO SPECIFIC COmiAND. 

We admit, first of all, that there is no specific 
command in the Bible enjoining the duty of family 
prayer. This has been urged against its observ- 
ance. That it should be by sinners, by those 
whose morality is measured by the precise state- 
ments of the statute-book, is not to us a matter of 
surprise. But that it should ever proceed from 
one who has read the Scriptures with any degree 
of devout attention, from one who has tasted the 
good things of God, from one who has had the 
promises at any time and in any measure fulfilled 
in his soul, is, we confess, a very remarkable, if 



AN APPEAL. 



11 



not unaccountable thing. To all such persons ^Te 
kindly submit the following considerations. 

§ WHY. 

The Christian religion is manifestly suited to 
man as man, intended to be adopted by every 
rational human creature, in every age, and under 
every circumstance. As far as practicable, there- 
fore, Christianity is stripped of ceremonies. It 
aims to produce a reformed life from a reformed 
heart. And when the New Testament shows man 
the way of salvation by faith, and lays down certain 
general principles for the government of the Church, 
and certain general principles for the government 
of man in all his social and spiritual connections, 
it leaves to this renewed heart and this instructed 
mind, the work — -the blessed, improving work — 
of deducing rules for special occasions. There is 
one trait of human character which seems to have 
escaped the observation of many. It may be 
gathered from this statement : The man who re- 
quires a specific command to do that which com- 
ports with all his obligations, which corresponds 
with all the revelation God has made, and which 
would be naturally prompted by a good heart, is a 



12 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



man who would be the slowest and the last to obey 
such a command. Let us appeal to the heart of 
the Christian. Are jou accustomed to exj^ect your 
child to do only those things which you specifically 
command % Would you consider him an obedient 
son who watched the letter of your directions, but 
paid no attention to its spirit ? Do you not daily 
expect your children to do many things which they 
are to gather from the well-known principles which 
govern you in the management of your family ? 
And when they have done all these, they are merely 
obedient. Love outstrips commands. Love flies 
to do what is most indistinctly intimated as the 
will and pleasure of its object. 

Let the Christian man now apply these plain 
principles to the examination of his heart and life. 
Does he consider that man as fully devoted to the 
cause of Christ who does only what is distinctly 
commanded in the Bible? Is not every truly 
pious man with whom the reader of this page is 
acquainted, engaged in many things which the 
spirit of the New Testament suggests, but which 
are not commanded '? If the neglect of any act or 
exercise is denounced in the Sacred Scriptures, if 
the observance thereof is recorded with approba- 



AN APPEAL. 



13 



tion, if tlie regard thereof is always folloY/ed by 
profit and blessing, if it be impossible to fulfill the 
obligations and duties created by the distinct pre- 
cepts of the Bible while this exercise is neglected — 
who is so dull of understanding as not to perceive 
that it takes rank with 8.11 that the Bible considers 
duty ? 

The Scriptures do not always direct us in those 
things in vfhich instinct, reason, and the general 
impulses of our nature, will be ready and sufficient 
guides. If any head of a family urges as a reason 
why he does not conduct domestic worship, that 
the Bible does not command it, it may be readily 
asked him why he clothes and feeds his children, 
why he sends for a physician and for medicine 
when his wife and servants are sick. If he stares 
at one asking such a question, his own statement 
may be repeated — " the Bible does not command 
it." The Christian professes to believe that as 
an individual receives personal blessings at the 
hand of God, has many personal, spiritual wants, 
has these wants recurring daily, and can have 
them supplied only by the Lord, — it is right, and 
proper, and necessary that he should maintain 
habits of prayer ; and the more so, since he has 

2 



14 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



sins to be forgiven, and may from time to time be 
betrayed into transgression. He professes also to 
believe, that as tlie whole body of the Church of 
Christ has received favors, and has spiritual wants, 
it is necessary that the Church should wwship as 
a church ; and that this should be done in addition 
to the worship which each individual member of 
the Church is supposed to offer to God. Now, do 
not the same things hold good in regard to the 
family ? Are there no domestic blessings for 
which to thank God, no domestic wants, temporal 
and spiritual, to drive us to the Sa\iour '? no do- 
mestic short-comings and transgressions, for which 
forgiveness is to be implored ? — Is it not reasonable 
to think that if the Lord saw that men would 
be able to gather the propriety of personal and 
church worship from the Scriptures, it was un- 
necessary to enjoin by special command what would 
promptly suggest itself as being so eminently ac- 
cordant with what is by all acknowledged to b€ 
plainly taught 1 If the natural man prompts the 
head of a family to make a full and ready provis- 
ion for the natural wants of his wife, and servants, 
and children, might it not be supposed that the 
spiritual man, quicker and more sympathetic. 



AN APPEAL. 



15 



would flj to provide for all the spiritual wants of 
his family 1 — Or, is it supposed by the Christian 
that these are the less important ? But, if a man 
provide breakfast and no prayers for his children, 
must they not be driven to the conclusion that 
their father thinks the body more important than 
the soul 1 — It would seem as though the voice of a 
renewed heart would instruct a man, if there were 
no intimations in the Scripture on this subject. 

§ ANOTHER VIEW. 

It may not be amiss to add, that those who 
throw themselves back on the proposition that the 
Bible does not command if, not only imply that 
they do nothing which is not distinctly enjoined in 
the Holy Book, but also that they regard it as the 
rule of faith and practice, and that consequently 
they hold themselves bound to do all that it does 
enjoin. The question very naturally comes — Do 
they ? Is it possible to obey every command of 
the Scripture while one is living in neglect of 
family prayer ? Let any head of a family read 
his Bible through, marking the passages which 
distinctly enjoin a duty to his children or his ser- 
vants, let him consider them carefully and de- 



• 



16 



THE HOME- ALTAR. 



Youtlj, and then ask himself how it possible 
that these commands can be kept in that house 
where there is no stated domestic worship. If he 
is an impartial man and will do this thing calnilv, 
we think the conviction will be full and clear that 
those Yv'ho set up this general argument against 
fa^milj prayer have no enlightened \^ew of tl!e 
whole body of their duties, or are wanting in that 
religious principle whicli refines all the sentiments 
of the heart, and leads a man to do not only what 
is demanded by the bodies, but also what is need- 
ful for the souls of those connected with him. 

§ ARGUIvIENT PROl^S TOO MUCH. 

W e have considered this argument with respect- 
ful attention, because, if there is any force in it, it 
will modify our views of several important matters. 
If we are to adopt this principle rigidly, Abraham, 
Isaac, Jacob, all the patriarchs and good men who 
lived in the first three thousand years of the world's 
history, are to be regarded as doing works of super- 
erogation, for tkey prayed; and so far as it can be 
discovered in the Bible, the first explicit injunction 
to prayer was written not much more than a thou- 
sand years before Christ. But we put it in a 



AN APPEAL. 



17 



stronger light. Will tlie person who is using this 
argument maintain that all the good men who lived 
before the times of David were not hound to pray, 
that no obligation was upon them until the explicit 
injunction came from the mouth of an inspired 
man ? He will not pretend that they did not 
pray ; and he is left to answer the question, Why 
did they ? Will not the position we are combat- 
ing be found as powerful against secret prayer 
and public worship as against Family Prayer 1 
We are not commanded to pray in private or to 
worship in public. The direction how to do both 
is given, but it is in the first place assumed that 
they will be done. 

§ AN IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE. 

As any discourse on this subject is supposed to 
be addressed to Christians, many things are taken 
for granted as believed by them. For instance : 
we certainly are not in error in supposing that 
every Christian allows that, as far as he is able, he 
is bound to bring glory to God from his family. 
Upon such an admission, how can he answer this 
question — Do you sincerely believe that God is as 
much glorified by your family when no domestic 

2* 



18 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



worship is performed, as when, night and morning, 
you and your wife, your children and your ser- 
vants, come together and bow down and kneel be- 
fore God your Maker 1 He cannot deny that he 
is to do all that he can to promote the glory of God 
in his family, for that would make him appear 
" worse than an infidel nor can he assert that 
God is as much glorified by a prayerless as he is 
by a praying family, for that would prove him to 
be brutislily stupid. 

§ WHAT THE BIBLE DOES TEACH. 

This single fact binds it as a duty — it is im- 
plied in Holy Scripture. If under obligation to 
do the will of God at all, we are under obligation 
to do it however or vfhenever we learn what it is. 
No man of correct thought and feeling will deny 
that what is intimated anywhere in a revelation 
from God is as binding upon men as what is dis- 
tinctly and explicitly taught. Look at what is 
said concerning prayer. " I will that men pray 
every v)here.^^ 1 Tim. ii. 8. " Jesus spake a para- 
ble that men ought always to pray." Luke xi. 
" Praying alv)ays (or, at all times,) y>ith all "prayer 
and supplication." Eph. vi. " In everything^ by 



AN APPEAL. 



19 



prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let 
your requests be made known unto God." Phil. 
iv. 6. Now these precepts are supposed to be 
plain enough. " Everywhere," " at all times," 
" all prayer," and, " everything," are very com- 
prehensive phrases ; so comprehensive, that vre 
maintain that they include stated family prayer. 
Of no man can it be said that he prays every- 
Tfhere, at all times, with all prayer, in everything, 
if he notoriously omits family prayer in that house 
over which he has control. Now if these expres- 
sions do not imply family prayer, how are we to 
know that they imply private or public prayer 1 
For the reason which would exclude the one Avould 
exclude the other ; and to exclude all, v,^ould be to 
assert that the passages of Scripture in vfhich they 
occur are empty nonsense. Then, there is that 
verse in 1 Tim. — If any provide not for his own, 
and especially for those of his own house (kindred), 
he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an in- 
fidel." Let it be granted that the connection of 
this text refers to temporal rather than to spiritual 
things ; let it be understood to mean that he who 
does not provide suitable food and raim.ent for his 
family, denies the faith of his lips by the deeds of 



20 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



his life, and is worse than tlie unbelieving heathen, 
whose natural feelings prompt him to do this much ; 
and then how forcible does the argument become ! 
For a still stronger reason, the member of Christ's 
Church who fails to make provision for the spir- 
itual necessities of his family, is a man who, every 
day of his life, sets his practice to war with his pro- 
fession, and is worse than the unbelieving pagans 
who have their household gods, and who take care 
that their families daily perform the rites of a 
darkened superstition. And has that man made 
suitable provision for the spiritual wants of his 
family who has not yet erected an altar at his 
hearth-stone, and formally constituted the " Church 
in the House?^^ — Here, then, it appears that the 
Bible argument on this subject is not so vague as 
many imagine ; nor is it true, as many more seem 
to think, that there is no Bible argument to en- 
force this obligation. In Jeremiah x. it is written : 
" Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know 
thee not, and upon the families that call not on 
thy name." Now we have no disposition to take 
liberties with Scripture in order to prove a point : 
its plain meaning will answer every good purpose 
of Christian thought and argumentation. We call 



AN APPEAL. 



21 



attention to the fact that the families v/ho call not 
upon tli8 name of the Lord are classed with hea- 
then.* Of ever J family v/here there is no domestic 
altar it may be said that it does not call upon the 
name of the Lord — as a family it renders Him. no 
homage and no service ; however refined and well- 
bred, so far as religion is concerned it is a heathen 
family in God^s account. The terrors of this pas- 
sage are suiScient to drive us to the discharge of 
this duty, if we were not sweetly drawn by the 
teachings of our beloved Master. 

§ THE SAVIOUR AT FAMILY PRAYER. 

The inspired biographer tells us that on one 
occasion, when the Lord Jesus Christ had been 
praying and ceased, his disciples asked to be 
taught how to pray. It is manifest that they 

* Philip Henry wovild say, sometimes, " If the worsliip ot 
God be not in the house, write. Lord, have mercy upon us, upon 
the door, for tliere is a plague, a curse in it. It is the judg 
ment of Arclibishop Tillotson, in that excellent book which he 
published a little before his death upon this subject, — That 
constant family worship is so necessary to keep alive a sense 
of God and religion in the minds of men, that he sees not how 
any family that neglects it can in reason be esteemed a family 
of Christians, or indeed to have any religion at vCLL'^ — See Life 
and Times of Rev, Philip Henry. 



22 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



did not ask instruction in private prayer. The 
Saviour did not so understand them. He gave 
them a form of social prayer. Thej constituted 
Christ's family. Christ had been conducting 
family prayer. They had heard him. Their 
hearts had burned within them as the Saviour 
prayed, and it was natural that they should de- 
sire to know how to continue these precious ser- 
vices when the Master was not with them. Look 
at the model He presents them. " Our Father" — 
not " my Father " Give us this day our daily 
bread" — not " Give me this day my daily bread;" 
and so of the other petitions. It is manifest that 
the prayer is to be used socially, if we consider it 
as a form — and if supposed to be a model, it still 
shows that our Lord is pleased when we engage in 
asking for blessings with united voices. Upon the 
Lord's Prayer, then, we remark (1.) that it is to be 
used socially, that is, where several persons are 
engaged in prayer together ; and (2.) that it is to 
be used every day. Now how can this duty be 
effectually discharged by those who have no family 
altar ? 



AN APPEAL. 



23 



§ SCRIPTURAL EXAMPLES. 

Not everything done by good men is enjoined 
upon us by the Scriptures, but surely the things 
which are recorded with divine approbation ought 
to find a ready imitator in every truly Christian 
man, even as any good child will make haste to 
imitate its elder brother w^hom he sees doing what 
he discovers is pleasing to a venerated and beloved 
parent. Now what do we learn of those great men 
whom the Bible immortalizes by its imperishable 
histories 1 Going back to very early times, we 
find that family religion was cultivated by Noah. 
Immediately after the flood he erected an altar, 
when there was no soul to worship except his own 
household. They worshiped together, as we find 
from Genesis ix., where the Lord is represented as 
making a covenant with them. " God spake unto 
Noah, and to his sons with him.^^ A few chapters 
after the one from which we have just quoted we 
find the following high praise bestowed upon Abra- 
ham by the Lord : " For I knew him that he would 
command his children and his household after him, 
and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do jus- 
tice and judgment." The meaning of this seems 



21- 



THE H'-JME-ALTAR. 



to be, that tlie Lord knew that Abraham would 
exert all his paternal and magisterial authority 
over his children and his servants, to constrain 
them in the ways of religion. Therefore God 
loved him, ond condescended to reveal His pur- 
poses to him. To this example we call the atten- 
tion of those parents who profess to be afraid to 
have worship with any regularity, lest it beget a 
distaste for religious things in the minds of their 
children. Abraham commanded his ; and God 
admired and praised him for it. "If ye were 
Abraliam's children, ye would do the works of 
Abraham." Gal. iii. The good Matthew Henry 
makes the follovfing comment on Genesis xii. T, 8 : 
" His constant practice, y/hithersoever he removed. 
As soon as Abraham was got to Canaan, though 
he was but a stranger and sojourner there, yet he 
set up, and kept up, the worship of God in his 
family ; and wherever he had a tent, God had an 
■ altar, and that, a,n altar sanctified by prayer. For 
he not only minded the ceremonial part of religion, 
the ofifering of sacrifice, but he made conscience of 
the natural duty of seeking to his God, and calling 
on His name, that spiritual sacrifice with which 
God is well-pleased, he preached concerning the 



AN APPEAL. 



25 



name of the Lord ; that is, he instructed his family 
and neighbors in the knowledge of the true God, 
and His holj religion. The soids he had gotten 
in Haran, being discipled, must be further taught. 
Note, those who would approve themselves the 
children of faithful Abraham, and would inherit 
the blessing of Abraham, must make conscience 
' • up the solemn worship of God, particu- 

jLiiriy in their families, according to the example of 
Abraham : the way of family worship is a good old 
way, is no novel invention, but the ancient usage 
of all the saints. Abram was very rich, and had 
a numerous family, was now unsettled, and in the 
midst of enemies ; and yet, wherever he pitched 
his tent, he built an altar : y/herever we go let us 
not fail to take our religion along v/ith us." All 
Christian parents profess to be Abraham^s chil- 
dren, not by the flesh, but by faith. Let not Abra- 
ham's faith in the power of religious training sur- 
pass ours ! Job is one of the sublimest characters 
portrayed in the Bible, He not only had reputa- 
tion on earth, but also in heaven. At a congrega- 
tion of the sons of God, Jehovah questioned the 
Devil to know whether he had considered Job, 
" that there was none like unto him in the earthy a 

B 



26 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



perfect and an upright man, one that feared God 
and eschewed evil." No ordinary servant is he 
of whom his Master speaks in such lofty and un- 
qualified terms. We are let into the privacy of 
his life at home. " And it was so, when the days 
of their (his sons') feasting were gone about, that 
Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in 
the morning and ofiered burnt-offerings, according 
to the number of them all. Thus did Job con- 
tinually.^^ Here is the example of the man whom 
the Lord so highly esteemed. Nor can we forget 
the bold and explicit saying of Joshua to all the 
congregation, when there was religious defection in 
the camp : " Choose ye this day whom ye will 
serve ; as for me, and my house^ we will serve the 
Lord." This expression is meaningless, unless we 
suppose that he meant to continue acts of domestic 
worship. He could not become responsible for the 
piety of the individual members of his family, but 
he knew what he could do, and what he must do ; — 
he could follow the example of Abraham, and com- 
mand his household, as a household, after him. In 
the 6th chap, of H. Samuel we are told that in 
bringing the ark of the Lord from Kirjathjearim 
to the city of David, it was allowed to remain in 



AN APPEAL. 



27 



the house of Obed-edom. " And it was told Kinsj 
David, saying, The Lord hath blessed the house 
of Obed-edom and all that pertaineth unto him, 
BECAUSE OF THE ARK OF GoD." King David 
brought up the ark with religious festivity, in 
which he took an active part. He played on in- 
struments. He danced with all his might." At 
the close of the protracted services, fatigued as we 
may suppose him to have been, he " returned to 
bless his household." He did not suppose that his 
exalted position or recent public labors could dis- 
charge him from the obligation to conduct domes- 
tic 'viTorship. For how much slighter excuses have 
Christians omitted this delightful and improving ex- 
ercise ! — A Roman centurion rebukes our prayer- 
less families by his conduct, and the Lord would 
stir our hearts by the praise He pronounces upon 
Cornelius : "A devout man, and one that feared 
God, with all his house ; which gave much alms 
to the people, and prayed to God always." — " The 
Church in the House " is an expression used several 
times by the Apostle Paul, and intimates to us 
that the early Christians were accustomed to have 
domestic worship. Did not our Lord Jesus Christ, 
the great exemplar of the Church, as in many 



28 



THE HOME-ALTAR, 



other things, so m this, give us an example 1 He 
taught his little family of disciples the great truths 
of religion — he questioned them — he sang with 
them— -he prayed with and for them. Does not 
this look like domestic worship 1 Who can doubt 
that if he did these things, it must be well pleasing 
in his sight when any head of a family is reading 
the Bible to his disciples — for such are his children 
and servants — and vfhen he is particularly calling 
their attention to religious truth, and ascertaining 
their progress in knowledge by questioning them — 
and when he is singing psalms, and hymns, and 
spiritual songs with them — and when he is devoutly 
leading tlieir alFections to God in prayer — and 
when he is making supplications for them at the 
throne of the heavenly grace 1 Such a man is fol- 
lowing in the footsteps of the good, from the Father 
of the faithful to the Author and Finisher of our 
Faith. 

§ A GREAT PRINCIPLE. 

There certainly can be no more explicit state- 
ment than this : "To him that knoweth to do 
good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.'' James 
iv^ IT. The question may be put directly to 



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29 



every man's conscience : Do you believe that it 
will be doing good to have stated family worship 
in your house? Can it be possible that in all 
Christendom a member of any church could be 
found who would answer, JYo ! We can hardly 
conceive such a case. Thousands, even of the irre- 
ligious, would respond in the affirmative. But let 
us consider some of the good that is done by the 
observance of regular family worship. 

§ BENEFITS FROM FAMILY WORSHIP. 

1. For peace, happiness, and successful labor, 
it is necessary that the members of a family live 
together in harmony. It is possible that a man 
and a woman and several children herd together 
without sympathy, without reciprocal tenderness, 
each standing off to himself, or, what is worse, each 
obstructing and irritating the other. Such a family 
is a most melancholy sight. Now, is it not desir- 
able that they should be harmonized ? And can 
you conceive anything which would more effectually 
bring them together than the reading of the Word 
of God and the union of all the members in 
prayer ? Would there not be established a cord of 
sympathy running through all hearts, all feeling 
3* 



30 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



that they were sinners dependent upon the mercy 
of God, all addressing the throne of the heavenly 
grace together 1 How well has it been said that 

family prayer is the oil which removes friction, 
and causes all the complicated wheels of the fam- 
ily to move smoothly and noiselessly F' Try it, 
dear brother, and see if it he not so. 

2. It is beneficial to the servants of a household. 
Every man is responsible to God for the manner 
in which he rears his servants. He must teach 
them the way to God, A Christian master may 
no more dare to neglect the spiritual interests of 
his servants, than a Christian parent may dare 
neglect those of his children. Family worship is 
eminently calculated to do them good. There is 
no language like that of the Bible for uninstructed 
souls. The very words impress the truth upon 
the mind. The striking precepts and narratives 
of the Scriptures v/ill go out with them to their 
work, and the mind will run upon these things, 
and the good word of God, vfliich is the seed of 
truth, will spring up and bear fruits of righteous- 
ness. Your example will teach them to pray, and 
the fact that you are particular to call them in morn- 
ing and night, that they may share your devotions, 



AN APPEAL. 



31 



and that you pray for them earnestly and kindly, 
will make them love you and love your children, and 
serve you heartily, and not sulkily and grudgingly. 
This is a great point gained. A servant is always 
to be made to know his place, but he is not to be 
excluded from the Christian sympathies of the 
other members of the family. Prayerless brother, 
do you know why your servants are so faithless to 
you ; why they work so slowly, and neglect their 
work in your absence, and give you so much trou- 
ble in a thousand ways 1 Is it not because you 
have never, by reading the Scripture to them, by 
prayer, by personal instruction, shown them that 
you recognized such a thing as duty and such a 
thing as moral responsibility 1 In a word, have 
you not actually taught them to be faithless to 
their earthly master, by your faithlessness to our 
heavenly Master ? They see you robbing God 
daily, and daily neglecting His work ; and he must 
be a stupid servant vfho does not know that you 
are bound to be faithful to God by ties higher, 
stronger, and manifold more, than those which 
bind him to you. Be assured that it would go far 
to restrain your servants if you would make them 
feel that God is in your house, and that the whole 



32 



THE PIOME-ALTAR. 



family are daily commended to His special protec- 
tion. 

3. There are your children. As a Christian 
man, you acknowledge your obligation to give them 
instruction in the things pertaining to godliness. 
There are portions of that instruction which you 
cannot give immediately ; such as are to be re- 
ceived from the minister of the Gospel. But this 
they receive in church, and perhaps you are 
very careful to see that they attend the preaching 
of the Gospel regularly. This is very right. And 
you put them in the way of deriving benefit from 
the Sunday-schools, the Bible-classes, and the cat- 
echisings. This is all very good ; but you must 
remember that there is a work to be done for your 
children which none but yourself can do. There 
is an influence exerted over your child, the whole 
power of which lies in your own hands. You do 
well to call in all aids — but you must remember 
that they are only aids. You are personally re- 
sponsible for the accomplishment of that in your 
offspring which only yourself can achieve. The 
father's, the mother's signature must be set on the 
child. — Now, hear the word of God. ^' Therefore 
shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and 



AN APPEAL.- 



ill your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your 
hand, that they may be as frontlets between your 
eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, 
speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, 
and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou 
liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou 
shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine 
house, and upon thy gates : that your days may 
be multiplied, and the days of your children, in 
the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers 
to give them, as the days of heaven upon earth." 
Beut., xi., 18-21. These words certainly must 
imply the duty of inculcating the doctrines and 
precepts of our holy religion in the minds of your 
children. How can you do this so effectually as 
by maintaining regular family prayer, connected 
with the reading of the Sacred Scripture 1 On 
other occasions you take pains to correct some par- 
ticular fault, or impress some particular truth, but 
in this service the general spirit of the Bible is 
breathed into your family ; many a point of mor- 
als which you might never think of touching, is 
brought by the Holy Spirit to bear upon the minds 
of your servants and children, which, although 
you may never know it, and they may never be 



34 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



aware of it will be a secret yet powerful restraint 
in hours of sudden temptation. 

The headship of a family is a responsible posi- 
tion, surrounded by duties the discharge of which 
is often very painful. The man who is permitted, 
by God's providence, to hold this place, needs all 
the assistance he can derive from the grace of God 
to do his work faithfully. He also does well to 
call around him everything which can strengthen 
his authority over his household. Can we imagine 
anything better calculated to effect this than his 
daily appearance in their midst as, in some sense, 
however subordinate, their priest^ leading them 
with the sacrifices of a broken spirit and a con- 
trite heart, to the mercy- seat of God? "Will they 
not rise from their knees with a more reverent 
regard for him who has been interceding in their 
behalf with the Father of their spirits 1 No man 
knows the power of this feeling who has never 
lived in a family where domestic worship was con- 
ducted daily. Then, again, there are foibles, and 
short-comings, and slighter obliquities of conduct 
which it is not always well to rebuke directly, but 
which may be most effectually corrected by the 
reading of an appropriate passage of Scripture, 



AN APPEAL. 



35 



and by the spirit and tone of the prayers which 
are offered. This delicate correcting is in the 
hands only of those parents who maintain family 
worship. 

Every Christian is supposed to be anxious that 
his children and his children's children should be 
the servants of God, and that the piety of the 
family should be handed down, through those who 
bear the name, to the last generation of man. Can 
this be done where family prayer is neglected 1 
Or, could any more certain means be devised for 
the propagation of Christianity than the faithful, 
unfailing discharge of this duty by Christian pa- 
rents ? Children would then be reared to believe 
that domestic arrangements were incomplete until 
they embraced the worship of God. As a man's 
children colonized and set themselves up in several 
families,^ the number of little domestic churches 
would be multiplied, there would be so many more 
points from which the light of religion would radi- 
ate, and every generation would find the number 
increasing, until the earth should be filled with the 
knowledge of God. But what kind of expectation 
can a man have that his children will bring up 
their offspring in the nurture and admonition of 



36 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



the Lord, rmen they themselves have seen nothing 
at home of the beauties of domestic piety 1 Here, 
ROW, is the way to send one's influence down 
through all coming time, and out to the ends of 
the earth, A man may be poor, he may not be 
learned, he may not be r.ble to do much for the 
Church in a public and striking way, but a,t home 
and quietly he may be preparing his family for 
greater spiritual improvement when at church, he 
may be rearing those who, when he is dead, will 
be mothers in Israel, will be ambassadors for 
Christ, and will spread the leaven of our holy relig- 
ion. If from the beginning of men the morning 
and evening Vv'orship of God had been observed in 
every family, would there now be any heathen na- 
tions, any families that know not God ? Let neg- 
lectors of this great duty look at this fact — that but 
for the neglect of family prayer, there would be no 
heathendom, with its dark places full of cruelty, 
no worship of stocks and stones, no callmg upon 
idols, no pagan rites, no necessity for the great 
and laborious sacrifices of the missionary work : 
a regular observance of daily family prayer would 
undoubtedly have prevented all these. Now if v,^e 
would have the generations which succeed us de- 



AN APPEAL. 



voted to God, let us hand down a high apprecia- 
tion of this duty and privilege as an heir-loom in 
our several families. 

4. There is another consideration which ought 
to have weight with every man who is head of a 
family, and that is the good effect of this observ- 
ance upon his own character and conduct. We 
do not now speak of the supplies of grace which 
he may expect to receive from his heavenly Father 
in prayer, — very important as these are to him, — 
but to the wholesome restraint upon his temper, 
his tongue, and his general behavior, which the 
bare fact that he conducts family wwsliip w^ill in- 
variably exert. We need every restriction which 
can be thrown around us to keep us from evil, we 
need every constraint to do right which can be 
brought to bear upon our hearts, so great is the 
power of sin in us. Now no man can persevere 
in assembling his family daily, read the Scriptures 
to them, kneel down in their midst, confess his own 
sins and the sins of his family, and pray for for- 
giveness and for God's restraining, preventing, and 
sanctifying grace — can twice a day in the presence 
of his family renew his vows to his Maker — and 
not feel that it increases the circumspection with 
i 



38 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



wliicli he regards his whole conduct as he goes in 
and out before them. Intelligent views of consist- 
ency would lead him to avoid many a thing which 
he now allows himself, and which may finally be 
ruinous to himself, and a stumbling-block to others. 
It has been suggested that this is the very reason 
why some will not discharge this duty, because it 
does bind them to a more particular life. Reader, 
can this be the case with you ? Examine your 
heart, and answer to your God. If it be so, think 
how low, how unbecoming a Christian is such a 
reason as this. You neglect one duty that you 
may be free to neglect others, you daily relax the 
bands wherewith God would bind you to a holy 
life — you, who should be daily striving to be holy 
in heart and in outward conduct — you, who should 
be especially careful before your children and ser- 
vants, you voluntarily omit that which you ought 
to do for them, in order that you may do that 
which will injure yourself. Look at this matter 
seriously. It is a debt you owe your family. 
You are unjust, daily, so long as you omit it. 
And see how one sin involves you in others. 
Trace out in all its bearings upon your heart and 
your life, and upon the several members of your 



AN APPEAL. 



39 



family, the baleful influence of this neglect, and 
ask your immortal soul how it is to appear at the 
dread bar of God with all this guilt upon it. You 
admit, you feel that it would compel you to mend 
your ways if you commence family prayer. You 
would then be doing good to yourself and to every 
member of your family, and to the Church of the 
living God, and to the community in which you 
live. You know this. Now remember — to him 

THAT KNOWETH TO DO GOOD, AND DOETH IT NOT, 
TO HIM IT IS SIN. 

5. No man can calculate the influence which 
domestic worship in the several families composing 
a church has upon the general prosperity of that 
church. The preached word of God takes quicker 
and deeper root in the hearts of the members, the 
children are taught at home to listen to the Scrip- 
tures with a devout and inquiring spirit, they 
have been so instructed in the word of truth that 
they more readily comprehend the minister, and so 
when the inhabitants of the dwellings of Jacob 
come up to the gates of Zion there is an humble 
and teachable spirit in them, and God shows them 
his glory. Oh ! w^hat an affliction it is to be the 
pastor of a congregation composed of unpraying 



40 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



families ! There is so little relisli for Gospel truth, 
the ground is so hard, the minds of the people are 
so earthly and so worldly, so little accustomed to 
be raised in devotion, that there is no spirit of 
prayer in them, no habits of worship, the responses 
are uttered so carelessly, or there are no responses 
at all, that the public service becomes a form, and 
the soul of the minister sinks within him. How 
different is it in that congregation where the heads 
of families are faithful ! There the fiame is fanned 
morning and night, and through the whole week is 
kept bm-ning, and on the morning of the holy day 
the gathered fires from perhaps more than a hun- 
dred homes blaze together on the altar of our God. 
You may search Christendom through and not find 
a single church which is prosperous where family 
prayer is generally neglected — and you will not 
find one where a revival of religion did not follow 
a general increase of faithfulness in the discharge 
of this duty. The writer of this brief appeal was 
accustomed, once a month, to visit a congregation 
in a thri\dng manufacturing village. Endeavoring, 
as he thought, to labor faithfully for the cause of 
Christ, it pained him to see such coldness through- 
out the church membership. Striving to account 



AN APPEAL. 



41 



for it, he supposed, of course, that there must be 
some neglect of duty somewhere, and merely con- 
jectured that it might be in this particular. The 
church was called together, the heads of families 
kindly questioned upon the subject, and it was 
found that only one member kept up domestic 
worship. An appeal was made, and promises en- 
tered to take up this duty. These promises were 
fulfilled, and almost immediately a work of grace 
commenced in that church, which resulted in the 
conversion of many souls, and increased prosperity 
in every department of the church's operations. 
Was this chance 1 Can any man say so who be- 
lieves the Bible ? The Lord has said, " To him 
that order eth his conversation aright will I show 
the salvation of God." Psalm 1. 23. 

In many of our meetings for prayer it is very 
desirable that lay members be able to take the 
lead. That pastor is peculiarly unfortunate who 
has no members upon whom he can call to pray in 
social meetings. But there are many such ; and 
how can we account for it but by the fact that they 
do not pray with their families at home, and have 
not, therefore, acquired that preparation to aid their 
pastor and to help the Church, which it is a shame 
4* 



42 THE HOME-ALTAR. 

* 

for any layman, who has attamed his majorityj not 
to possess 1 Here, then, is an important advantage 
to be derived from family prayer. As the commis- 
sion of one sin is most likely to involve us in the 
commission of others, so the discharge of one duty 
is an excellent preparation for the discharge of 
others. 

6. In addition to the moral effect upon yourself, 
your children, your servants, and all who pertain 
to you, which is produced by the observance of this 
institution, there is one thouglit which should be 
uppermost in every truly Christian heart, and 
should crown every other consideration, namely, 
that the blessing of God will be given in direct 
answer to 'prayer. This is a doctrine held univer- 
sally by Christians as a part of their creed ; would 
that, with its consoling power, it were constantly 
cherished in the hearts of us all ! But this appeal 
is presumed to be addressed to such as hold this as 
an article of their faith. Can we be blessed too 
often or too much % If the prayer of the closet is 
heard, will not the prayer from the family altar 
a.scend to Him whose favor is life and whose loving- 
kindness is better than life ? And is anything to 
be put in comparison with this ? Is our belief in 



AN APPEAL. 43 

the presence, power, and mercy of God, sincere 
and hearty 1 Then why not come with united 
prayer to the Fatlier of Mercies 1 Is there any- 
thing, in the decent and devout assembling of our 
families, to prevent our prayers from reaching the 
skies 1 On the contrary, are there not many great 
and precious promises to those who engage in social 
prayer 1 Jesus has promised to be present at such 
meetings. He has promised to hear prayer so 
offered ; and if we know and believe this, and yet 
fail to use any means of grace which we are sure 
our Heavenly Father approves, how can we expect 
Him to bless us in the use of any other 1 Does 
He 1 This question is most seriously presented to 
the consideration of every reader who is the head 
of a family, or who is in such a position as to make 
it his duty to institute domestic worship. When 
we refuse to discharge a certain duty, which w^ill 
require some sacrifice of time or feeling, for the 
purpose of obtaining the blessing of God, but go 
to Him in the easiest way, to obtain His favor as 
cheaply as possible, will the heart-searching God 
hear us '? Would you do so ? Suppose I pro- 
fessed friendship to you, yet would never be found 
with you in company, would never come with my 



44 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



family to pay my respects to you, be ashamed 
or afraid to have my children go with me, but, 
because you are rich and powerful, and may be 
of service to me, would go in the darkness of 
night to your house, profess great love for you 
there, but be unwilling to make the least sacrifice 
for your acquaintance and friendship ; would 3^ou 
tolerate me ? And yet, my brother, such is your 
position with God. You are willing to go to Him 
in private, but will not take your family with you. 
Have you any right to expect that God will hear 
you ? Is ever the private prayer of that man an- 
swered, who might, but will not, institute domestic 
worship under his roof? 0, it may be that all 
the while you have been deceiving your own soul. 
Perhaps this will show you why your private 
prayer is so cold, so unprofitable. God will have 
none of you. You come ofiering the lame and the 
blind. You are afraid to pray earnestly, even in 
private, for you know that if God should answer 
your prayers and shed his love abroad in your 
heart, you would be compelled to commence family 
worship, and this is exactly that thing which you 
are not willing to do. Your private prayer, then, 
is a ceremony, a mockery, and if so, your whole re- 



AN APPEAL. 



45 



ligion must be shallow, if not empty and worthless. 
Have you ever known a man who, so far as you 
have been able to ascertain, has been earnest in the 
discharge of every public duty of church member- 
ship, and regular, and ardent in private devotion, 
who neglected this great duty? Never, if your 
observation has been as ours. And is this chance 1 
Does it just happen so ? Verily, it is of our God, 
who is a jealous God, Avho searches the heart and 
tries the reins of the children of men. 

And now, if this blessing be so inestimable — if it 
is to be sought everywhere, in all the ways of His 
appointment — if the maintenance of family worship 
produces happy eifects upon parents, children, and 
servants, preparing all for the better discharge of 
private and public, of home and church worship and 
service, perpetuating Christianity to future ages, 
while it begets a deepened spirituality in the church 
at this present time — if it hallows the house, and 
makes it the residence of Jesus, the nursery of the 
Church, the type of heaven, — and, if the neglect 
of this duty shed a blight upon all the members of 
the family, hardening their hearts, preparing the 
way for infidelity, loosing the family ties, and 
bringing down the daily curse of the great and 



4G 



THE TICJME-ALTAR. 



glorious God wlio sits upon the circle of the heav- 
ens and sees all that is done upon earth ; — how can 
you. Christian brother, fail to do that which brings 
such blessings and averts such curses ! How can 
you answer to your Heavenly Father for involving 
your children in such destruction ! 

§ EXCUSES. 

It is easier to convince men that they are wrong 
than to persuade them to do right. But the Holy 
Spirit of God may be expected to accompany and 
bless every well-meant scriptural effort. In this 
sure and certain belief, we proceed to examine the 
excuses which are generally made by those who 
neglect this duty. We call them excuses^ as there 
is only one which partakes of the character of an 
objection to the institution itself ; and the difficulty 
in all the cases supposed lies not in family prayer, 
but in the hearts of the persons concerned in this 
matter. 

§ FIRST EXCUSE. 
/ am too timid There certainly is a dif- 
ference in the temperament of men and women ; 
some have more nerve than others, while some are 



AN APPEAL. 



4T 



shrinking, timid, self- distrustful. And it is also a 
consoling scriptural truth, that our Heavenly Father 
requires of us according to what we have, and not 
according to what we have not. Your timidity 
may make it a greater cross to you ; but you know 
where your strength lies ; you know who promises 
more grace ; therefore, if you are a delicate woman, 
whom God's providence has put over a family, al- 
though you may shrink — try I Cast your care 
upon the Saviour. Look to Him for direction ; 
and as your day, so shall your strength be. Timid 
as you are, you would run into the midst of a host 
of armed men, or into the midst of the flames, to 
pluck your child from the jaws of death. Think 
a moment : your child will probably be lost if there 
be no worship in your house. There are very few 
probabilities of any child being saved who is reared 
in a prayerless family. Will you not exert your- 
self to save your own offspring 1 Shall not this 
thought make you dare to do all that you must^ if 
not all that you can ? 

§ SECOND EXCUSE. 

" It is so inconvenient,'^'' Are you the head of a 
family, and make this an excuse ? Can you not 



48 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



regulate the hours of rising and retiring, or eating, 
and of working 1 If not, what are you doing at 
the head of a family ? Your little child should take 
your place. What is meant by inconvenient 
Is it not fitting that in the morning God should 
have our thanks for the preservation of our lives 
through the night, and that fresh grace and strength 
should be sought for the approaching labors of the 
day 1 Inconvenient ! vvdiose work and business does 
it not suit 1 Yours 1 Would you take such an 
excuse from your servant 1 Suppose your cook 
should tell you that it was inconvenient for her 
to prepare more than one meal for the family every 
day : what would you say to her 1 And yet you 
make such an excuse to your Heavenly Master. 
You tell him that your family, by your direction or 
permission, have entered upon such a course of bu- 
siness and pleasure that it will interfere with either 
the one or the other to maintain the daily worship 
of God. Are you really in earnest when you pro- 
fess to believe that He will accept such an excuse 1 
Of course, the business or the pleasure is sinful, 
for no harmless and holy habits, or proper pursuits, 
interfere with the service of the Lord. And now 
you ask God to excuse you from the discharge of 



AN APPEAL. 



49 



a duty because it Avould be an interruption to your 
own or to the sins of your family. How can you 
appear before God with such a sentiment 1 For 
this very purpose w"ere you allowed and appointed 
to be the head of a family, that you might glorify 
God, and it is a base betrayal of a sacred trust if 
you continue to maintain the position and fail to 
perform the service. 

§ THIRD EXCUSE. 

'^I have not time.^^ This is similar to the last, 
but for depth of infidelity it is perfectly unsur- 
passed. W e would almost as soon hear one whom 
we loved, or a member of our flock, use profane 
language. When the sentence comes from the lips 
of a professed follower of Christ, it is an outrage 
on the common sense of man, and a most flagrant 
insult to the majesty of God. Have not tim.e ! 
What ! And God made you, has preserved you, has 
given his only-begotten Son to redeem you, has given 
you life, intellect, the sources of profit and pleas- 
ure, and given time itself, time to be used in grow- 
ing better, time which is only valuable as affording 
space for the preparations for eternity, time every 
instant of which belongs to Him, — is it His ser- 

5 



50 



THE HOME -ALTAR. 



vice for wliicli you liave not time ? How lias this un* 
accountable state of affairs come about 1 What do 
you do with your time ? As a member of the church, 
you acknowledge yourself bound to serve God, to con- 
secrate all you have to Him, that whether jou eat or 
drink, or whatsoever you do, you are to do all to His 
glory, and that you have no right to pursue any em- 
ployment which you do not believe consistent with 
the promotion of His cause in the .earth. Your pro- 
fession of religion involves all this. Now, how is it 
that you have not time 1 Have you too much busi- 
ness ? Then you are following the promptings of av- 
arice ; as a mechanic, a merchant, or a professional 
man, you are overtasking your powers. There is a 
point beyond which the mind cannot take such over- 
sight of business as will make that business profit- 
able. You have, therefore, undertaken to do what 
God does not desire, and upon which you cannot 
expect His blessing : you have undertaken it from 
covetous promptings, and may therefore expect 
Him to blight it : you have undertaken more than 
He has given you ability to perform, and may 
therefore expect to fail. There is before you the 
prospect of ruin in your business, in your family, 
in your soul. You abandon the blessings of heaven, 



AN APPEAL. 



51 



and can only look that the blessings of earth will 
abandon you. Give up part of your business. 
Honor and safety bind you to do it. Do not say 
that you cannot support your family if jon do. 
This is to have no faith in God. Will He not re- 
ward you better than the devil 1 Is not the whole 
earth His ? Has He not promised that He will 
honor those who honor Him ? You are now labor- 
ing against the curse of God. You may have 
prosperity, but remember that the Bible says that 
the " prosperity of fools shall destroy them." It 
is no sign that God may not be cursing you be- 
cause you are succeeding in business. This may 
be the very form of the curse. He may pour un- 
expected wealth into your lap, and this may bring 
luxury, worldliness, sin, shame, sorrow, to you, 
to your wife, and to your children. Is not real, 
permanent success to be expected, rather by those 
who serve God than by those who forget His 
service, and violate His commandments ? — But 
have you not time 1 How much does it require to 
conduct the service of God in your house, twice a 
day, in a decent manner 1 Certainly not so much 
time as you must have imagined ; and then, when ; 
the service has been instituted, and the domestic I 



52 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



regulation made, and everything else bent to this, 
you will find that this is no interference with your 
business, and at the close of the day you will not 
feel as though you had lost a particle of time. 
On the contrary, you will discover that regularity 
in this one item will help to make all the move- 
ments of your family systematic, and system is 
absolutely necessary for the accomplishment of 
anything valuable, and for the management of 
large and complicated business operations. But I 
address you on a higher ground. You are a pro- 
fessor of the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Is your profession a pretence? or do you really 
believe the word of God ? — Do not be offended at 
these questions. Remember that they are natu- 
rally suggested to every thinking man by your own 
course. — If you do believe the word of God, then 
you must be persuaded that He hears prayers and 
answers them, and that His blessing is of inesti- 
mable value. You must believe that His blessing 
upon your efforts is necessary to success, and will 
actually promote the advancement of your tempo- 
ral affairs more surely than the best planning of 
the intellects, and the most industrious labor of 
the hands of yourself, your wife, your children, and 



AN APPEAL, 



53 



your servants. You must believe that lie who can 
work only one hour a day under God's blessing, 
will more surely succeed than he who rises early, 
sits up late, and eats the bread of carefulness, 
while he is destitute of that blessing which ma- 
keth rich, and leaveth no sorrow. Have you time 
to dig, to plough, to sow, to harrow, to reap, and 
not time to pray? Time to plan, to invest, to 
buy, to sell, and to bargain, but not time to pray ? 
Do you say to your children, your servants, your 
clerks, " Come, we have no time to eat to-day, the 
field is to be ploughed, the crop is to be garnered, 
the ship to be laden, the letters to be written ; no 
time to eat to-day !" Never have you been guilty 
of this folly — but you have shown to your chil- 
dren, your servants, your clerks, that you believed 
you could succeed without God's blessing, that 
you could succeed against His curse, that your 
own right hand and strong mind would bring suc- 
cess, and that when the Lord God said, " Man 
shall not live by bread alone," He uttered what 
you believed to be contrary to fact. My brother, 
you need God's blessing ; you must have it. If 
not convinced of this, the first clearing of the 
ground which is to be dug for the foundation of 

- 5* 



54 



THE HOME- ALTAR. 



the superstructure of a Chi^istian cliaracter is yet 
to be made. You are yet a blind worldling : a 
worldling in tlie Church of Christ, growing worse 
in your own condition, and doing more harm to 
others. JVo^ time ! ! You who can spend an 
hour in the morning looking over the newspapers, 
a half hour in the middle of the day in the angry 
discussion of party politics, some time in the even- 
ing for a trashy novel — time to take pleasure and 
to make money, time to eat too much, time to 
sleep too much, time, perhaps, for a concert, for a 
useless visit, for extraordinary carefulness in dress- 
ing, for uncharitable and unprofitable conversation 
— you, a Christian, a member of the Church, a 
husband, a father, a master, a dependent upon 
God, a candidate for eternal honors, you have not 
time to spend fifteen minutes in the mornmg, and 
fifteen minutes in the evening, reading that word 
which is able to make you and yours wise unto 
salvation, and praj^ing for strength, wisdom, for- 
giveness, and holiness, and ojffering your thanks 
and praises to Him who spares you, and crowns 
your life with loving-kindness ! No time ! Have 
you time to die, my brother ? No, you have no 
time to die. It will be a great inconvenience to 



AN APPEAL. 



55 



you, a great interruption, and for this reason more 
than any other, that you have not " set your house 
in order." Never, then, so long as you have time 
to eat your breakfast and your supper, make this 
excuse. Your wife, your children, your servants, 
do not believe it. You do not — God does not. In 
the eyes of all these you are acting as does not become 
a member of the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

§ FOURTH EXCUSE. 

" My family is too small. '^^ The smallest 
family must consist of two individuals. Is that 
the case with you ? If so, how interesting a fam- 
ily may yours be ! Perhaps you have just married. 
Is there any better time to cease from all evil, and 
to begin to do all the good you can ? Your young 
wife is ready now to pray to God with you daily. 
Go to her in manly humility, and tell her that the 
days of your courtship were pleasant enough, but 
that now the days of responsibility as well as of 
higher happiness have come ; that it is an un- 
toward world, and you are exposed to constant 
temptation among men ; that you need all the as- 
sistance you can have from her love and God's 
grace to save you from ruin, and to make you faithful 



56 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



to your marriage vows. Her heart is toward you 
now. This very day is the time to begin. The 
longer you postpone, the more difficult will the work 
be ; and remember, that it was a wrong you did 
that wife you love when you led her to . the altar to 
bind her to your fortunes with indissoluble ties, 
and yet had not resolved to consecrate to God the 
house to which you took her. Now, parallel with 
your lives, rule the bright line of religion. If you 
live to be old, it will be a delightful thought that 
you have always had God in your house. It will 
brighten and strengthen the golden chain that binds 
you, and the incense from the altar of your home will 
float through all the chambers, a sweet savor of God, 
Perhaps your family was once large, and spread out 
like a glorious tree, but the storms have visited you 
and torn limb after limb away, leaving you as you 
began life, two again, but lonely and stricken. Go 
to the mercy-seat. Humble yourself before your 
Maker. You certainly cannot complain that He has 
taken your children, if you were rearing them amid 
the impieties of an unprayerful abode. From the 
evil to come God hath taken them. You refused to 
do a father's duty, and God refused you a father's 
pleasure. But go unto Him. He has stricken, 



AN APPEAL. 



57 



and He will heal you. — Or, it may be, that you 
have lived until your children have grown to ma- 
turity, and colonized. They have set themselves 
up in families, and you and your wife, in your old 
age, are left to finish life alone. How strange and 
good are the ways of God ! He spared your 
children, although you were not rearing them for 
His glory. Perhaps this thought has afiected some 
one of your sons ; or, in spite of your neglect, the 
grace of God has appeared unto him, and he has 
reared an altar at his hearth-stone. Let his pious 
example rebuke you, and " go and do likewise." 
But have two, three, or four of your children mar- 
ried, made homes, and yet found no place for the 
Lord their God ? See how you are propagating irre- 
ligion and infidelity ! In your lifetime you can see 
the stream of your evil example widening. Let your 
few last days be spent with the wife of your youth in 
prayer together, that God may forgive you, that 
He may help you to devote all of life that is left to 
the honor and glory of His name. Pray for your 
children. Lead them adult where they should have 
gone infants. Go to your sons. Confess your evil. 
Tell your repentance, even if with bitter tears, and 
beg them, as they dread a remorseful old age, as 



58 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



thej dread the curses of their God and the curses 
of their children, to avoid that neglect which is 
planting the pathway of your last faltering foot- 
steps full of thorns. Under whatever circum- 
stances your family may be small, there yet re- 
mains to be quoted that memorable saying of the 
Saviour, " Where two or three are gathered to- 
gether in my name, there am I in the midst of 
them." Matt, xviii. 20. Here is reason enough, 
inducement enough, to make an altar in the small- 
est house. 

" Mr. Howard, the philanthropist, never neg- 
lected the duty of family prayer, even though 
there was but one, and that one his domestic, to 
join in it ; always declaring, that where he had a 
tent, God should have an altar. This was the 
case not only in England, but in every part of 
Europe which they visited together, it being the 
invariable practice wherever, and with whomsoever, 
he might be, to tell Tomasson to come to him at a 
certain hour, at which, well knowing what the di- 
rection meant, he would be sure to find him in his 
room, the doors of which he would order him to 
fasten ; when, let who would come, nobody was 
admitted till this devotional exercise was over. 



AN APPEAL. 59 

Very few," says the humble narrator, " knew the 
goodness of this man's heart." 

§ FIFTH EXCUSE. 
" My family is so large ^ and we have so many 
visitor s,^^ So large ? Of whom does your family 
consist 1 I presume your wife, your children, your 
servants, and perhaps some relatives or connec- 
tions. Yours is a large family, according to your 
statement. Then you have more children and 
more servants than many of your neighbors. That 
is to say, God has blessed you more. You have 
had children given you, and their lives have 
been continued. You have succeeded in business, 
or inherited wealth, and thus have been able to in- 
crease the number of your servants. You have 
filled your roomy house with the comforts of life, 
and made it a delightful visiting-place, so that you 
have much company and good cheer in your pleas- 
ant home. Who hath given you these things ? 
Who could take them away in a twinkling of an 
eye'? And is He to have no daily expressions of 
gratitude for His munificence to your household ? 
— Many children, servants, and friends ! See 
how many must be deeply injured in their spir- 



60 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



itual interests if you neglect this duty, how many 
to rise up against you in judgment, how many tc 
perpetuate your example, and to carry the stream 
of irreligion down to unborn generations through 
so many channels. See how many may be blessec 
by a proper, humble effort on your part to dc 
that which by honor and conscience you are 
bound to do. If you had but one child, it would 
be worth a life's devotion to lead that child to 
God, as his growing influence might widen and 
deepen as ages roll on; but to train a num- 
ber for the Lord, this is a glorious work, which 
should certainly not be abandoned, but rather cer- 
tainly prosecuted, because it is so great a work. 
The physician might just as well abandon his prac- 
tice because it is so large, the military leader his 
army because it is so large, the minister of the 
Gospel his congregation because it is so large, as 
might you surrender your family to irreligion be- 
cause it is so large. It is not an inducement suf- 
ficient to lead you to abandon labor for the mainte- 
nance of the family, for procuring bread and rai- 
ment, because it is so large. Every addition to it 
ought to stimulate you to be more diligent in busi- 
ness and more fervent in spirit. — The larger your 



AN APPEAL. 



61 



family, the more need there is of religion in the 
house to control and regulate, to modify the inter- 
change of influences, to suppress those outburts of 
passion which, where so many interests are con- 
cerned, may jar the little community to its centre. 
Your family may no more do without religion than 
your town, your country, the world. And if relig- 
ion prevail in your midst, you will find your fam- 
ily all anxious to have family prayer ; but whether 
or not, you are bound to discharge jout duty in 
this respect. " But, the visitors ! I could do 
well enough, perhaps, with my own family, but the 
service might be disagreeable to my visitors Is 
it possible that you will suffer any other man to 
come into your family and regulate or derange 
your own affairs ? Or, are you not bound to exert 
a wholesome influence over all who put themselves 
within your reach? Is there not to be one law 
for him that dwelleth with you, and for the stranger 
within your gate 1 You are bound to exert a perpetu- 
al influence to the extent of your power. The best 
labor for Christ is the constant, faithful, trustful 
discharge of every duty. Here is an illustration. 

A gentleman from England brought a letter 
of introduction to a gentleman in America, The 

6 



62 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



gentleman was of accomplished mind and manners, 
but an infidel. The gentleman to whom he had 
brought letters of introduction, and his ladj, were 
active Christian philanthropists. They invited 
the stranger to make their house his home, and 
treated him with every possible attention. Upon 
the evening of his arrival, just before the usual 
hour for retiring, the gentleman, knowing the pe- 
culiarity of his friend's sentiments, observed to 
him, that the hour had arrived in which they usu- 
ally attended family prayers ; that he should be 
happy to have him remain and unite with them, 
or, if he preferred, he could retire. The gentle- 
man intimated that it would give him pleasure to 
remain. A chapter of the Bible was read, and 
the family all knelt in prayer, the stranger with 
the rest. In a few days he left this hospitable 
dwelling, and embarked on board a ship for a for- 
eign land. In the course of three or four years, 
however, the providence of God again led him to 
the same dwelling. But oh, how changed ! He 
came the happy Christian, the humble man of 
piety and prayer. In the course of the evening's 
conversation, he remarked, that when, on the first 
evening of liis visit, he knelt with fcliem in family 



AN APPEAL. 



63 



prayer, it was the first time in many years that he 
had bowed the knee to his Maker. This act 
brought to his mind such a crowd of recollections, it 
so vividly reminded him of a parent's prayers, which 
he had heard at home, that he was entirely bewil- 
dered. His emotion was so great, that he did not 
hear one syllable of the prayer which was uttered, 
from the commencement to its close. But God 
made this the instrument of leading him from the 
dreary wilds of infidelity to the peace and joy of 
piety."* 

Now these good people, with whom the accom- 
plished infidel tarried, might have prayed very 
earnestly in their chamber for his conversion, and 
he might and probably would have gone away un- 
arrested : it was the family -iprsijer that overpow- 
ered him with recollections which eventually brought 
him to the cross. Recollections of what 1 Of the 
prayers of his parents. Even the domestic wor- 
ship of his new American friends would have been 
powerless, had not his youth been accustomed to a 
solemn service at home. What encouragement is 
this to parents ! Having sown the seed of truth 
in the minds of my children, when I am sleeping 

* Abbott's " Mother at Home." 



64 



THE HOME -ALTAR. 



in the grave, the breath of prayer on another con-- 
tinent may make the tmth shoot up' and grow, and 
bring forth fruit for G.od and man. 

We cannot pass from this topic vdthont calling 
the attention of those vho have recently married, 
and those who have small families, to the difficulty 
which they will experience if they put off this duty 
until their families have grown much larger. And 
see, also, how ready is the evil heart of unbehef 
in offering excuses. One has too small a family, 
another too large. " The heart is deceitful above 
all things." 

§ SIXTH EXCUSE. 

My family icill not join meP Have you tried 
them ? If not, how can you slander youi^ family 
by representing them as so heathenish ? How can 
you know that they would not % Are you not re- 
allv making a misrepresentation an excuse for 
your own unwillingness % Perhaps they are daily 
looking for you to begin, hopmg, solicitous, ready 
most joyfully to receive the announcement that 
" Father is going to have prayers in the family !" 
They are unwilling to speak to you on the subject, 
but God's vSpirit may now be strivmg with them, 



AN IPPEAL. 



65 



and if the altar be set up in the house they may 
give their hearts to God speedily; if not, they 
may be lost : and at whose hands will their blood 
be required ? — Perhaps there is no special anxiety 
upon the part of any member of your family to 
engage in the discharge of this duty, for the very 
reason that you have given your family no relig- 
ious instruction ; but the very moment you propose 
it, the propriety will be so apparent, that they 
may all yield at once ; and if the domestic arrange- 
ments do not favor it now, your wishes in the mat- 
ter will be consulted, and you will soon find every- 
thing moving on with a beautiful regularity. By 
all means, first roll the burden from your own 
shoulders. The responsibility is upon you, as the 
head of the family. Try it. Let your family 
know, before they go down to the grave, that they 
have had this blessed opportunity. — But let us 
look at it in another light. Are you not the head 
of the family ? Does not the government of the 
household devolve upon you ? Our whole appeal 
has been based upon that supposition. Who will 
not join you 1 Your wife ? Appeal to her by the 
vows she made so solemnly at the bridal altar to 
love, honor, and obey you, by her own spiritual 

6* 



66 



THE HOME \LTAR. 



necessities, by the moral exposure of your off- 
spring, and if the mother-heart in her has not been 
seared over with a hot iron, she "will do all she can 
to facilitate your plans. Will not your children? 
Are they young 1 Bend them down to if, as you 
must answer for it at the judgment seat. Are you 
a member of the Church ? Then you profess to 
be of Abraham's seed by faith. Hear what the 
Lord says of Abraham : " Abraham shall surely 
become a great and mighty nation, and all the na- 
tions of the earth shall be blessed in him, for I 
know him, that he will command his children and 
his household after him.^^ Gen. xviii., 18, 19. 
Here is the reason, under God's blessing, of Abra- 
ham's remarkable growth, he commanded his chil- 
dren. Can you not command your children ? Are 
they " too hard " for you ? Think how you bring 
shame upon yourself by this admission. You, a 
man, a father, and cannot make your little chil- 
dren do as you will ! Are you not ashamed to 
look them in the face 1 To be a little child's inferior 
in governing power ! To let your child rule you ! 
How can you endure it ? Bear plain speech in this 
matter. If it really be so that you cannot make 
your children do as you wish, you are unworthy the 



AN APPEAL. 



67 



position and name of father. You have assumed a 
post whose duties you cannot discharge. If it be 
absolutely so — if you really cannot control your 
own offspring, even when you make a full and hon- 
est effort, who could blame you if you left your home 
and refused to look upon your child again 1 But 
you must command your children. Honor, right- 
eousness, self-respect, society, the weal of your 
offspring, the will of your God, enjoin it. Now is 
the time. Do not put it off another day. Under- 
take the conquest. Summon to your aid all your 
intellectual, moral, spiritual, and physical resources. 
Leave off everything else. Lay siege. Nothing 
now can be so important to you upon earth, as to 
gain the supremacy which your Maker intended 
that you should have in your own family. But per- 
haps your children are almost men and women, 
and yet, according to your showing, they are un- 
governable. Oh ! what a melancholy picture is 
this ! But, the blame lies with you. You have 
given them daily aid by your example, until they 
have grown strong enough to over-ride all rule and 
authority. They saw you rebelling against the 
authority of your Father in heaven. Your neglect- 
ing to conduct family v^orship was so ungrateful to 



68 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



Him to whom you are bound by ten thousand times 
ten thousand stronger, higher, purer ties, than those 
which bind your children to you, that they were 
daily rooted and grounded in all ingratitude. I 
hardly know what to say to you ; but, you ought to 
have worship in your family. Perhaps God will par- 
don Eli ; He may also move the hearts of Hophni 
and Phinehas, and convert and save them. If He 
do not, none other can. He is your only refuge. 
Fly to him ! Confess your fault to your children 
and to the Father of your spirit, and He may par- 
don and bless. Perhaps some other relative is res- 
ident with you, and a hinderance to the discharge 
of this duty. Whoever it may be, under whatever 
circumstances that person may live in your house, 
if he persevere in teaching your children to rebel 
against you and against God, cast Mm out. He 
is a snake at the cradle, an adder on the hearth- 
stone. Cast him out.* To no other human being 
do you owe as much as to your wife and children. 
By all a husband's and a father's honor, you are 
bound to fling from your family circle whatever 
element of discord or irreligion may have crept 
into it. But that relative may be rich, and the 

*Matt. X. ST. 



AN APPEAL. 



69 



family expectations look that way ! And, you 
have really made up your mind to sell your chil- 
dren to hell for gold ? Is this the plain English 
of the language you use 1 Has it come to this ? 
Baser and baser still ! Achan's wedge of gold and 
Babylonish garment ! At whatever sacrifice of 
feeling or of property, you must give your family 
to God. You cannot prosper without that bless- 
ing which descends from Him, and whosoever and 
whatsoever stands between you and that blessing is 
a foe ; treat it as a foe ! Stand on earth, as at the 
judgment bar you must stand at the head of your 
family. Lead them to God. Guide, direct, control 
them. Strength will be given for this purpose. Your 
Heavenly Father will assist ; you will succeed ; and 
you will have honor on earth, and honor in heaven, 

§ SEVENTH EXCUSE. 
' ' / am ashamed to begin . I shall be ridiculed if I 
do.^^ But if you do not, hear what God says : I 
will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when your 
fear cometh ; when your fear cometh as a desolation, 
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind ; when 
distress and anguisji cometh upon you."* Here, 

* Proverbs i. 26, 21. 



70 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



then, is your choice, if it be true, as you say, that 
your fellow-men will ridicule you . You must resolve 
to bear that, or make up your mind to endure that 
tremendous ridicule with which your Maker intends 
to overwhelm you in the hour when you are in most 
need of all the tenderness and consolation which 
earth and heaven can yield. Choose now ! Who 
shall laugh at you, man or God ? But who will 
ridicule you ? Certainly not good men. And sup- 
pose bad men do : they ridicule you now in their 
own hearts, if not openly. They think, and per- 
haps behind your back they say, He is a pretty 
member of the Church ! Professes to be a servant 
of God, promised to bring up his children re- 
ligiously, and all that, and yet has no family 
prayer, is no better at home than we are !" This 
is what they say. Now you have learned very lit- 
tle of the workings of the carnal mind, which is en- 
mity to God, if you have not discovered that shi- 
ners will slander and ridicule the people of God, 
no matter whether they do right or wrong. But 
this is also certainly true, that when we do right 
and they ridicule us with their lips, their own 
hearts are compelled to do honor to the pro- 
priety and consistency of our course, and we 



AN APPEAL. 



71 



are sustained under the ridicule by our conscious- 
ness of rectitude ; but when they ridicule our in- 
consistencies, our consciences join in the cry, and 
we are condemned within and without. The fact 
that there is so much irreligion in the world as to 
make some profess to think that it is ridiculous to 
hold family-prayer, should incline you, as a Chris- 
tian man, to its regular observance. The maxims 
of the world afford no guide to you — they are not 
your standard. You are to live as " seeing Him 
that is invisible." You are to be " looking unto 
Jesus." That reputation of which we should be 
most careful is our reputation in the skies. But 
your reputation as a Christian man upon earth is 
best secured by doing all that your profession binds 
you to do. Saints and sinners expect you to do 
so ; you may have adopted a wrong profession, 
but, right or wrong, the world expects you to main- 
tain a consistent observance of its duties. And, 
then, there is a day coming, when all opinion shall 
lie in the clear light of the eternal world. You 
will meet your neighbors at the judgment-seat. 
What, then, can he do for you whose sneer drove 
you from a manifest duty, led you to exclude God 
from your house, and rear your family in irreligion 1 



72 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



" Whosoever," says the Saviour, " shall confess 
me before men, him will I confess also, before my 
Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall 
deny me before men, him will I also deny before 
my Father which is in heaven."* What man so 
much denies the Lord before men as he who, for 
fear of ridicule, neglects domestic worship, and is 
willing to have his family ranked among the openly 
irreligious 1 God threatens to " pour out his fury" 
upon such a family, but the man plainly shows that 
he considers this nothing when compared with the 
opposition and ridicule of the god of this world. 

§ EIGHTH EXCUSE 
I do not know how to hegin.'^ Would you, 
if you did know 1 It is easy to find a way after 
one has found a will. May we humbly make a 
few suggestions'? This evening, — yes, this very 
evening, the sooner the better, no time for delay 
now, — after everything is cleared away in yom* 
dining-room, and some of the members of the family, 
or perhaps all, are sitting sewing, reading, or con- 
versing, go from your closet, where you shall have 
been humbly beseeching Him to give strength and 

* Matt. X. 32, 33. 



AN APPEAL. 



T3 



wisdom for the work, sit down in the midst of your 
family, and lay God's holy word before you. Say 
to those around you, " I will be glad if you will 
lay aside your vfork for a few minutes, that I 
may read to you a chapter out of the Bible.-' 
Then, read the first Psalm, or any other portion of 
the Scripture. Then say, " Let us pray," Kneel 
down. All the others will kneel also. If not, no 
matter now. Go on. If you cannot trust your- 
self to pray in your own language, because the 
scene is so new and so solemn, and your heart is 
surcharged with a swelling tide of emotion, in a 
distinct, and slow, and devout manner repeat the 
Lord^s Prayer. When y©u shall have risen from 
your knees, say : " We will have family- prayer 
again to-morrow morning." Then go back to 
your closet and thank your Father in heaven for 
the strength given you, and while you are pouring 
out your spirit for yourself and for your loved ones, 
they will be thinking upon the vision which so un- 
expectedly has passed before their eyes. You need 
not be there to make comment. God's Holy Spirit 
is there. The act and the manner in which it was 
done will do more to bring your family into meas- 
ures than a score of homilies « And to-night jou 



74 THE HOME-ALTAii. 

will kave «weeter sleep than has visited your con- 
science-stricken soul now these many months, per- 
haps many years. To-morrow morning take up the 
Bible as a matter of course, read another portion of 
Scripture, strive to pray in your own language, 
and if you find yourself at a loss for language, con- 
clude the service with the Lord's Prayer. This 
prayer ought to be in your devotions, whether long 
or short, whenever you pray with your family. 
After a few times, the family will understand that 
devotion is a regular part of the day's work, your 
diffidence will have measurably passed away, and 
you can then examine the subject and ascertain 
what arrangements best suit the family, and what 
aids you require. The least parade in this work, 
the better. Perhaps new difficulties would be ar- 
rayed against you if jon went round your family 
ascertaining the views of each member before you 
began. It would be well to consult with your wife. 
She will remove obstructions, and aid you by her 
prayers ; and then, " a work begun is a work half 
done." Only try ; you must succeed ; and success 
here will be so delightful. If difficulties rise up 
before ;fou, do not consider them. Shut your eyes, 
put your hand in the hand of your Heavenly Fa- 



AN APPEAL. 



75 



tlicr, and go forward. The mist will dissipate as 
you advance, and you shall soon stand under the 
light of His countenance. 

§ NINTH EXCUSE. 

The service will soon become a dull and useless 
form.^^ Perhaps it will ; but that will be your 
fault. It need not become so. If you maintain 
in your own heart, and cultivate in your children, 
a sense of God's constant presence, of your cor- 
ruption and great spiritual necessities, of the glory 
of heaven, of the horrors of hell, of the power of 
the atonement, and of the love of your Lord Jesus 
Christ, it will not become a dull service. This is 
no argument against family devotion, any farther 
than that it is an argument against all religious 
service. Fasting, private prayer, the reading of the 
Scripture, attendance upon divine service, may all 
become dull and useless forms, if our hearts be 
not ardently engaged therein. There is no part 
of the service of the Lord which will not be dull to 
a stupid, carnal, and unloving heart. It is well, 
then, that we go to the family altar with our spirits 
prepared to offer an humble and acceptable sacri- 
fice. 



T6 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



Perhaps there are many other excuses which are 
offered bj those who neglect this dutj ; we are striv- 
ing to expose the insufficiency of those with which 
we are acquainted, but we are sure that what- 
ever others there may be, they are traceable to a 
heart that is not right with God, and the man who 
offers them may well ask himself. Am I devoted to 
God ? Am I seekmg to be conformed to all His 
will '? — There is one other to which we must make 
some reply, 

§ TENTH EXCUSE. 
" I have not the ability. The first thing to 
be said of this is, that most probably it is insincere. 
You do not mean what you say. You use it to 
repel the minister, or the pious friend, or the Spirit 
of God, or the voice of conscience. If you knew 
that through the church of which you are a mem- 
ber, it were circulated that you were so stupid, so 
ignorant, that you could not read a passage in the 
Bible and repeat the Lord's Prayer, you would be 
indignant. And yet, so far as intellectual and 
physical ability is concerned, this is all that is re- 
quired. You have deceived yourself if you have 
supposed that an elegant discourse is to be de- 



AN APPEAL. 



17 



iivered daily in the presence of God. Oli, no ! 
To tell your sins before Him, to humble yourself 
under His mighty hand, to call upon His excellent 
name, praising Him and asking for wisdom, 
strength, and grace, for yourself and for your fam- 
ily, — this is all that is required of you. In this 
service, of course, the Lord, who gives you all good 
things, expects you to exert yourself to your best 
ability^ to render it a pleasing, profitable, and ac- 
ceptable work, but He does not require you to do 
better than you can. You are not to compare 
yourself with your ministers, or with some other 
members of your church, who have been engaged in 
this blessed work for years. Who told you that you 
had to pray as well as they 1 Begin j go forward ; 
you will do better and better. Your prayers will 
be more devotional. Remember that you are not 
praying to your family and the visitors who are 
present, butybr them, and to God ; and that when 
God passes judgment upon prayer, He does not 
consider the arrangement of the language, but the 
« state of the heart and the meaning of the mind. 
He searches your intentions. God and man will 
acquit you if you do your best, — by which is 
meant, not make the most show, but come as 

7* 



78 



THE HOME-ALTAE, 



humbly, reverently, c6nfidmgl;f* as*poSsible. You 
would find ability to pray the Governor of the 
Commonwealth to reprieve or pardon your son if 
he were condemned to death ; have you no ability 
to ask God to have mercy upon your chil- 
dren 1 O, brother, when the periled condition of 
those children becomes apparent to you, and 
your own danger lies open to view, you will fly 
to God, you will gather your little ones about His 
footstool. In broken language, and in tears, and in 
groans, you will pray, you will wrestle, you will 
agonize. God will hear you night and morning, 
calling upon Him for their salvation. You will 
not let Him go. Your children will lie on your 
heart, and in private, and in the great congrega- 
tion, and at home, you will offer strong cries and 
tears for their salvation. You will not think 
of language then. Nor will you when you see 
your child dying, when you fling yourself upon 
your knees beside that loved one so rapidly pass- 
ing away, and yet unconverted, and all conscious 
of approaching doom,~0, when you mingle your 
cries with the cries of that trembling spirit, you 
will not think of words ; God and the Saviour, 
Heaven, Hell, and Immortality, will set your soul 



AN APPEAL. 79 

on fire, and open your mouth and fill you with ar- 
guments. This night may be the last time you 
shall have opportunity to pray with your child. 
He may be dead to-morrow, — she may have passed 
from you. Will you offer at the bar of God the 
excuse, " I had no ability for the work'?" Have 
you ever tried ? If not, how can you know that 
you have no ability 1 You assert positively con- 
cerning that of which you have no knowledge. Is 
this right 1 By so saying, you imply that the 
Lord has laid upon you a burden which you are 
not able to bear. You thus dishonor your Lord, 
and damage His cause among men. Do not say 
that you have not ability. You, a shrewd farmer, 
mechanic, merchant, professional man, with such 
a loose tongue for unholy things, no ability to 
pray'? Beware, my brother. "Be not deceived. 
God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, 
that shall he reap." Go on ! Sow irreligion in your 
family, and you shall reap their damnation ; and 
when you look over the flaming harvest-field in the 
world to come, you will have whatever satisfaction 
there may be in the thought, " My carelessness, 
negligence, sloth, inactivity, unbelief, did all 
this !" 



80 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



§ SUGGESTIONS. 

Having endeavored to represent the character of 
family worship as a duty and a privilege, bringing 
blessings to individuals, to the donjestic circle and 
to the Church of God, and having endeavored to 
show the futility of the excuses which are made 
for its non-observance, if the Lord has blessed the 
effort, and any reader, really desiring to do all 
that is right, has resolved to set about this good 
work, it may be expected that some suggestions 
will be offered in regard to the best methods 
of making this an interesting and profitable ser- 
vice. What may be said on this subject may be 
of use not only to those who intend to begin, but 
also to those who have long continued to attempt 
the discharge of this important duty. The great- 
est part of our work is accomplished if any shall 
have been induced to take up the cross and to fol- 
low Jesus in this particular; the details of the 
manner, however, are not unimportant. Much 
will depend upon the heart being engaged, and 
much must be left to circumstances. We would 
not compel all to do alike, even if this were possi- 
ble. A right heart and a sound discretion will 



AN APPEAL". 



suggest the best methods, to each individual con- 
cerned. 

1. Family worship should be daily, and not less 
than twice a day. Some of the devout have called 
their families to worship God as often as to 
meals, that is, thrice each day. Others have this 
regulation for the Sabbath only. It certainly can- 
not be too often to require our children and ser- 
vants to assemble for praise and prayer every 
morning and every night. When thou liest down 
and when thou risest up," is the language of the 
Scripture. We say every morning and every 
night. The service will lose its power and its 
beauty, if interrupted by trivial circumstances. 
There can scarcely be anything to justify a de- 
parture from the rule. If omitted to-day for one 
reason, to-morrow it may be for another, and so it 
may finally be broken. Our families should see 
that we regard it as all-important, that no busi- 
ness is so pressing, and no pleasure so fascinating, 
as to drive or draw us from the worship of God. 
The moral force of this service will then be exerted 
upon their minds. If company come in just at our 
hour of service, let them be requested to wait for 
us a season, or to join in our prayers. 



82 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



In the morning, the temptation will be to run off 
as soon as we can to our business. Let us re- 
member that unless God's blessing go with us, we 
may be running into destruction. This were in- 
deed to be absorbed in Mammon-worship, if our 
anxiety to be engaged in the activities of a gainful 
business should prevent the worship of the Lord 
our God. It is recorded in the memoir of the ex- 
cellent ?hilip Henry, that he was not willing, unless 
the necessity were urgent, that any should go 
from his house in the morning before family wor- 
ship ; upon "such an occasion he would remind his 
friends, that, — prayer and provender never hinder 
a journey.* It is not time lost, but time redeemed, 
tliat which we spend with our families in prayer. — In 
the evening the interruption may be from company. 
If it happen to be an uninvited visitor, let him, as 
we have intimated, be imdted into our home sanc- 
tuary to kneel among the worshipers there. It is 
a delicate compliment to the visitor which every 
well-bred person will appreciate.! But all those 

* Life and Times of Philip Henry, p. 1 18. 

I " When George IV. was in Ireland, as we find recorded 
by the Rev. Dr. Sprague, he told Lord Roden that on a par- 
ticular morning he would breakfast with him. He accordingly 
camo, bringing with liim two or three of the nobility, and hap- 



AN APPEAL. 



83 



entertainments and companies which conflict with 
this domestic duty must have no place in a Chris- 
tian's house. If you have had difficulties on that 
score, you can be relieved at once by 'laying down 
the law that your family are not to have such 
evening entertainments, nor to go to such, as will 
keep them from the altar. It is to be a law of the 
house. If this regulation obtaineil universally 
through the churches, there would be a manifest 
improvement in the morals of society. There are 
certain kinds of re-unions now in vogue, which, 
while they do much toward the silent injury of tiie 
soul, are patronized by communicants of the 
Church. If the law we have stated were adopted, 
the line between the Church and the world would 

pened to arrive just as his lordship and family were assembled 
for domestic worship. Lord Roden, being informed thiit his 
royal guest had arrived, went to the door, and with every to- 
ken of respect conducted him into the house. Then, turning 
to the king, he said, ' Your majesty will not doubt that I feel 
highly honored by this visit, but there is a duty which I have 
not discliarged this morning, which I owe to the King of 
kings — that of performing domestic worship; and your majes- 
ty will be kind enough to excuse me while I retire with my 
household and attend to it.' ' Certainly,' replied the king, ' but I 
am going with you and he immediately rose and ftiiowed 
him into the hall, where the family were assembled, and tak- 
ing his seat in an old arm-chair, remained during the family 
devotion." 



84 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



be more distinct, and the example of the disciples 
of our Lord TYOuld not be used to give currency 
and boldness to the frivolities which dissipate and 
weaken the mind, and unfit for the public and pri- 
vate duties of religion. Let it be understood 
among us that nothing is to be thought of for a 
moment which is to interfere with our family 
w^orship ; that with the regularity of the sun's ris- 
ing and setting, we and those whom we love are to 
be found bowing before the Father of mercies. 

2. This duty will be more easily and profitably 
discharged if a certain place in the house and a 
certain hour of the day be set apart and con- 
secrated to family worship. After the adop- 
tion of this general rule, it will, of course, re- 
main with each family to decide what room and 
what hour. Such time and place should be select- 
ed as will be most probably free from interruption. 
Having observed many arrangements, the author 
of this tract adopted the custom of having prayers 
with his family immediately after breakfast and 
immediately after tea. It was found that before 
breakfast the servants, especially the cook, could 
not, without great inconvenience, be present at the 
service. As the meal concludes the bell is rung, 



AN APPEAL. 



85 



and every member of the family is expected to come 
into the dining-room. In the evening, especially 
in towns and cities, there are so many public meet- 
ings which some member of the family desires to 
attend, many of which are held to a late hour, that 
for their sakes family prayer should be early. 
Others of the family become engaged in study or 
in work, the children are soon sleepy, and if the 
service be not conducted in the beginning of the 
evening, they will necessarily be absent. Then, 
when we are freshest, when every one of us can be 
there, yiq make the room in Vrdiich we are daily fed 
by His hand to be the place of praises and of 
prayers, reading the Bible is, as it were, but a part 
of the daily meal, and the first and the last strength 
of the day is devoted to the w^orship of the Giver 
of every good and every perfect gift. This ar- 
rangement has been found best for the family of 
the present writer, and may be suitable to others. 
In stating it, however, he must not for a moment 
be supposed to be laying down a general rule. 
These are merely suggestions. 

3. Every member of the family should, on all 
occasions, be present, unless unavoidably detained. 
Children, and apprentices, and servants, should be 



86 



rHE HOME -ALTAR. 



compelled ; even as Abraham commanded — not 
exhorted, entreated, invited — his children and his 
household after him ; and others should be made to 
know that a prompt and respectful attention to this 
domestic dutj is requisite for a continuance with 
us. In many families the children are allowed to 
be absent, to be asleep, to be playuig, during family 
prayer. This must be prevented. Nothing but 
sickness should be an excuse. Very frequently, 
too, no provision is made for the presence of the 
servants. They are allowed to be present, but the 
head of the family has no sign by which he shows 
them that he expects them to be there ; and when 
they are absent they are not questioned on the 
subject, and when they appear they are allowed to 
stand or sit wherever they can find a place. All 
this is wrong ; it takes much from the moral beau- 
ty and effectiveness of the service ; and our domes- 
tics are thus informed that we regard them as 
spectators of our piety, not as partakers of like 
precious faith with us. And what lesson must 
many of our apprentices in the towns, and our 
servants in the country, learn from the fact that 
they are left in the shops and in the fields while we 
go in to pray with the other members of the family ? 



AN APPEAL. 



8Y 



Does it not show them that we are unwilling to give 
unto the Lord the few pence which thej are able to 
earn in that brief time ? And where is the consist- 
ency of such piety 1 How are we to answer for these 
souls 1 Family prayer is for the whole family, and 
all should be taught to unite in the singing and in 
the prayers. 

A pious tradesman, conversing with a minister 
on family worship, related the following instructive 
circumstances respecting himself : 

" When I first began business for myself, I was 
determined, through grace, to be particularly con- 
scientious with respect to family prayer. Accord- 
ingly, I persevered for many years in the delightful 
practice of domestic worship. Morning and even- 
ing every individual of my family was ordered to 
be present ; nor would I allow my apprentices to 
be absent on any account. In a few years, the ad- 
vantages of these engagements manifestly appeared ; 
the blessings of the upper and nether sprmgs fol- 
lowed me ; health and happiness attended my fam- 
ily, and prosperity my business. At length, such 
was the rapid increase of trade, and the importance 
of devoting every possible moment to my custom- 
ers, that I began to think whether family prayer 
did not occupy too much of my time in the morn- 



88 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



ing. Pious scruples arose respecting my inten- 
tions of relinquishing this part of my duty ; but, 
at length, worldly interests prevailed so far as to 
induce me to excuse the attendance of my appren- 
tices, and not long after it was deemed advisable, 
for the more eager prosecution of business, to make 
the prayer with my wife, \{\ien we rose in the 
morning, suffice for the day. 

" Notwithstanding the repeated checks of consci- 
ence that followed this base omission, the calls of 
a flourishing concern, and the prospect of an in- 
creasing family, appeared so imperious and com- 
manding, that I found an easy excuse for my fatal 
evil, especially as I did not omit prayer altogether. 
My conscience was now almost seared as with a 
hot iron ; when it pleased the Lord to awaken me 
by a singular providence. 

" One day I received a letter from a young man 
who had formerly been my apprentice, previous to 
my omitting family prayer. Not doubting but I con- 
tinued domestic worship, his letter was chiefly on 
this subject : it was couched in the most affection- 
ate and respectful terms ; but judge of my sur- 
prise and confusion, when I read these words : 
^ 0, my dear master, never, never shall I be Me suf- 
ficiently to thank you for tlie precious privilege with 



Ab: APPEAL 



89 



vv'hicli you indulged me in your family devotions ! 
O, sir, eternity will be too short to praise my God 
for what I learned there. It was there I first beheld 
my lost and wretched state as a sinner ; it was there 
that I first knew the way of salvation ; and there 
that I first experienced the preciousness of " Christ 
in me, the hope of glory." O, sir, permit me to say, 
never, never neglect those precious engagements ; 
you have yet a family, and more apprentices ; may 
your house be the birth-place of their souls !' I could 
read no further ; every line flashed condemnation 
in my face. I trembled, I shuddered, I was alarm- 
ed lest the blood of my children and appren- 
tices should be demanded at my soul-murdering 
hands. 

" Filled with confusion, and bathed in tears, I 
fled for refuge in secret. I spread the letter before 
God. I agonized, and — but you can better con- 
ceive than I can describe my feelings ; sufliice 
it to say, that light broke in upon my disconsolate 
soul, and a sense of blood-bought pardon was 
obtained. I immediately flew to my family, pre- 
sented them before the Lord, and from that day to 
the present 1 have been faithful, and am deter- 
mined, through grace, that whenever my business 
8* 



90 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



becomes so large as to interrupt my fam/ij prayer, 
I will give up the superfluous part of my business, 
and retain my devotion ; better to lose a few shil- 
lings than to become the deliberate murderer of my 
family, and the instrument of ruin to my own 
soul." — Arvine'^s Cyclopcedia. 

4. Supposing this regular assembling of our- 
selves to be a daily observance in our houses, we 
may proceed to remark upon the three several 
parts of social worship, reading the Scriptures, 
singing, and prayer. 

(1.) Our children and servants will learn more 
of the Scripture at our family-altar than anywhere 
else. The word of God should be read to them 
not as a dull formality, but as containing the most 
important instructions for time and for eternity. 
The head of the family himself should endeavor to 
gather a lesson from its pages every time he reads. 
To slur it over, to read it as a form, to enunciate 
its truths with carelessness, is to treat God's Word 
with irreverence. Very much of the profit of 
Scripture-reading is lost when the head of tho 
family opens anywhere and reads the first passage 
which comes to his eye. " The whole counsel of 
God" thus fails to be brought before the family. 



AN APPEAL. 



91 



the same passages are frequently repeated, and 
thus the interest of variety is lost. Some, in whose 
judgment we have great confidence, insist upon 
the propriety of reading the whole Bible through 
consecutively. From this opinion we dissent, with 
becoming diffidence. That every one should read 
the entire volume in private, genealogical tables 
and all," is unquestionably a duty, and must be 
profitable. The head of every family should teach 
those committed to his charge to search the Scrip- 
tures in this way. We confess, however, that we 
cannot see the propriety of persevering through 
such passages as occur, for instance, in the fifteenth 
and nineteenth chapters of Joshua, and many 
similar places in the Old Testament. It is all 
edifying. The disposition of the land of Canaan 
to the tribes of Israel by lot, showed the fulfillment 
of a wonderful prophecy, and on a genealogical 
table may hang a series of important arguments ; 
and so, in our private reading, the whole Bible 
must be read and studied devoutly, but we cannot 
see that it is most profitable to read the whole to 
a family.* At the same time wo must be allowed 

* The other side of the question is forcibly stated by Dr. 
Alexander, in his " Thoughts on Family Worship," pp. 206, 207, 



92 



THE HOME -ALTAR. 



to say that we have a high respect for the pious 
feelings of those whose reverence for the Bible 
will not allow them to omit a single verse, although 
we differ from them in opinion. Such portions as 
are most appropriate to family reading might be 
read in the order in which they occur in the Bible, 
a chapter from the Old Testament in the morning, 
and one from the New Testament at night. It 
has been suggested that a course of subjects miglit 
be selected. " For instance, you might read the 
'parables as one series, and the miracles of Christ 
as another. You might select the biographical 
portions, and read the lives of Adam, Noah, Abra- 
ham, Peter, Paul, &c." The reader will choose 
for himself; only let as much as possible of God's 
Word be heard by your family, and strive to in- 
terest them in the narrative, the precept, or the 
promise, by occasional simple, illustrative remarks, 
or short appropriate anecdotes. Frequently ask 
some member of the family, " Who said this 
" What does that mean ?" and similar questions 
easily answered, and calculated to keep the attention 
fixed upon what is read. Above all, endeavor to 
practice as you read, and let all about you learn 
from your whole manner while reading, and from 



AN APPEAL. 



93 



your conduct subsequently, that yours is a practi- 
cal faith in the divine origin of the Bible. 

(2.) The service at our family-altar will be en- 
livened and improved if singing be made one of its 
parts. Music is a blessing from God. The fam- 
ily where there is no song is a family indeed unblest. 
Where there is little musical talent, even that little 
should be given to the Lord. Where there are 
children, they soon learn to take delight in singing, 
and the servants ought to be exhorted to join in 
this part of the worship. It will redeem the ser- 
vice from dullness. We have already alluded to 
the family devotion conducted by our Saviour with 
his disciples. The example of our Lord in any 
particular should not be lost upon us. He sang 
and frayed. Compare Matthew xxvi., 30, with 
John xvii. Our hymns are often full of petitions, 
and the music quickens our faculties. " Whoso 
offereth praise glorifieth Me." Then, let every- 
thing that hath breath praise the Lord." Much 
of heaven is praise. They sing and shout at the 
throne. The song is the same — " the song of 
Moses and the Lamb." On earth our hearts 
should be tuned, and then, when called to the choirs 



94 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



above, we will not be altogether ignorant of the 
theme or of the music. 

In this service, also, an occasional question or 
remark, just before or just after singing a stanza, 
would tend to call attention to sentiments which 
otherwise might be passed over with negligence 
from frequent repetition. " Do we feel this grati- 
tude which we are about to express to God for hav- 
ing kept us during the night Or, " Are we 
sincere in this confession of sin which we have 
made, or are about to make Or, " Do we in- 
tend to pay unto the Lord the vow which we have 
just uttered?" Such questions would make those 
to whom they were addressed feel that they must 
not come before God in a careless manner. They 
would be led to remember that what they say on 
earth is heard and remembered in heaven. Thus 
would that part of the service which is so cheering 
be made solemn ; and our " holy mirth " would go 
up to the' Lord as a sweet-smelling savor. 

(3.) Prayer — united prayer — is a necessary part 
of family worship. This portion of duty should not 
be performed carelessly. We would premeditate 
before speaking to an earthly king : — the King of 
Heaven must be addressed with awe. If there be 



AN APPEAL. 



■95 



anything in our method of conducting this part of 
worship which is calculated to make it dull to our 
servants and our children, we are bound to correct 
it, so that God's service maj not be injured by our 
improprieties. It may be too long, and we have 
observed that as a general thing the devotion ap- 
peared to be inversely as the length of a prayer; that 
where men had nothing that lay like a load upon 
their hearts, and which they felt compelled to 
throw down before the Lord, they have felt at leis- 
ure to go coldly over many subjects, until the whole 
family has become wearied, and finally disgusted 
with the service. Where a man prays for every- 
thing, to say his prayer to-morrow must be a rep- 
etition of all or a part of the same. A few top- 
ics should be chosen and urged at the mercy- seat. 
The prayer may be too short. We may satisfy 
conscience by falling upon our knees, racing 
through a brief form, springing up, and running 
about our secular business, — but this is not prayer, 
whatever else it may be. There is no devotion 
there, and our families soon perceive it. — Some- 
times the prayer is delivered in a whine or tone 
which gives it a sanctimonious, pretentious air, 
and destroys the feeling of devotion in those who 



96 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



hear. Witli awe, humilitj, simplicity, and love, 
should we come into the presence of the Highest ; 
and, thus coming, we shall speak with dignity, 
without affectation, with a subdued and humble, 
but not cringing spirit, as friend to friend, an in- 
ferior, but not a slave to a superior who is great, 
and good, and wise, and condescending. 

The lesson which is read from the Bible ought 
to have effect upon the prayer which follows. We 
should attempt to catch the spirit of the passage we 
have read. Its doctrines and precepts, its lessons 
and promises, should be made the basis of our 
thanksgiving, supplication, and confession. Tvro 
things are gained by this : first, tlie truths of the 
Scripture are impressed upon us ; second, a Scrip- 
tural variety is imparted to our prayers. The 
circumstances by which we are surrounded should 
be made matter of prayer. Sickness and health, 
prosperity and adversity, arrivals and departures, 
late news from distant friends, the conversation of 
the day, or of a short period just before prayers, 
the sermon lately heard, dispensations of God's 
providence to our neighbors, the events in the 
town, the general state of the Church or of the 
nation, the striking ecclesiastical and national 



AN APPEAL. 



97 



events which are occurring from time to time, the 
seasons, our plans and pursuits, these and a hun- 
dred other things may be in turn made the subject 
of our prayers to our Heavenly Father, who regards 
even the minutest matter which concerns us. Let 
us not forget to pray for any friend who is 
visiting our house and kneeling with us, nor the 
pastor of the particular church to which we belong, 
nor the Sunday-school teacher and the other in= 
structors of our children, nor our own aged parents 
if they are living, nor the editor of the religious 
paper which is taken in our famity, nor the sick 
wdiom we have visited during the day, nor the so- 
ciety, missionary station, or religious or benevolent 
enterprise in which any of our children are interest- 
ed, or concerning which they may have been making 
inquiries, — let everything that reaches our circle 
be sanctified by our domestic piety. If our Chris- 
tian charities and sympathies run out as they 
should, we shall never be at a loss for subjects. 
And family prayer should be made thus compre- 
hensive. While, first of all, our own spiritual 
wants are told to our Father, and we pray earnestly 
for such things as we need, we must be careful not 
to narrow our hearts to the little group of which 



98 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



we form a portion. The whole family must be 
animated with the fine, flowing, expansive spirit of 
our Holy Faith. 

In our prayers, that they may produce the de- 
sired moral effect, we must appear to expect that 
God will hear us and answer us. Shall we assume 
this appearance ? God forbid ! Can we do it 1 
No ! Children detect such hypocrisy with remark- 
able quickness. How, then, shall it be accomplish- 
ed ? To seem good, he good ; to seevi to have 
faith, have faith. The character of the piety of 
the head of the family is to effect all the worship. 
If we realize God's presence, if we are in earnest 
in our desires, we will press our suit, the solicitude 
of our souls will come out in our tones, and lan- 
guage, and general manner ; and the whole family 
will be brought into sympathy with us, and will 
learn to call upon God as one who is not very far 
off. This we must do, whether we use forms pre- 
viously prepared, or speak in extemporaneous peti- 
tions. A scriptural form of prayer may be set on 
fire by the holy ardor of our souls, and be a burnt- 
offering pleasing to God, or we be stupid in using 
language of our own, our hearts unengaged, and 
our worship a mockery. Let him who leads the 



AN APPEAL. 



99 



devotion select his method for the particular occa- 
sion ; but, whatever that be, let him be sure that he 
means what he says, lest he present that abomina- 
ble thing to God which the heart of the Lord 
loathes, an unmeant prayer. 

Let the head of the family study the devotional 
parts of the Bible, especially the book of the 
Psalms, and enrich his mind with petitions which 
the Holy Ghost has inspired. Let him have in 
his closet-library a few books of prayers, such as 
Jenks', and Jay's, and Thornton's, and Berrian's. 
They are all easily procured. In his retirement, 
let him peruse these and the kindred books of pri- 
vate devotion, and then when he comes as the min- 
ister, and in some sort, priest of his family, to 
lead them to God in prayer, he will have his mouth 
filled with arguments, and the Spirit itself will 
help his infirmities, and the Lord in the heavens 
will hear, and the windows of heaven will be open- 
ed, and grace, and mercy, and peace, from God 
our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, will 
rest upon his household, and his children will rise 
up and call him blessed ; and when he has gone to 
worship in the upper sanctuary, some one who has 
been instructed by his ministrations and incited by 



100 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



his example, shall be raised to take his place, and 
thus shall his descendants be a seed to serve God 
down to the last generation, 

§ PARTING WORDS. 

It may be that some one, not a professor of tha 
religion of our Lord Jesus Christ, has read these 
few pages to see what might be said upon this sub- 
ject. Supposing such a one to be the reader now, 
it is natural to imagine him asking the question — 
Shall I institute family worship in my house? 
Friend, why not 1 You need God's blessing ; so 
do your children ; and His curse is upon you with- 
out it. Why not 1 Who shall hinder you 1 Per- 
haps your wife or some other member of your fam- 
ily is pious. You owe it to such a one to give her 
or him all aid in struggling against the tide of sin. 
But you say that you yourself are a sinner ; then 
you need God's grace. Commence this work, and 
you may be converted in the very act of setting up 
the altar. But think a moment ! If you are a 
sinner, you are on the road to ruin : will you draw 
your wife, your children, your servants with you 
down to the sides of the pit ? Of course you have 
no heart for this work, and we have spoken to you 



AN APPEAL. 



101 



in this matter, to show you from another point 
the destructive character of your course of life. 
How vastly wrong that life must be if it is so far 
removed from all that is good that you, cannot for 
a moment entertain the idea of doing that which, 
because it is so right, is so inconsistent with all the 
tenor of your practices ! Cease to do evil. Seek 
the salvation of your own soul, and then you will 
be prepared to discharge the duties devolving upon 
you as a husband, a father, and a master. 

But there are Christians to whom we must speak 
a few parting words. Perhaps, reader, you are in 
a family where there is no domestic worship, and 
have been excusing yourself from this duty because 
you are not the head. Is the head a member of 
the Church 1 If so, then you have grounds upon 
which you may safely address him upon this sub- 
ject. Have you ever requested him to bring this 
blessing to the hearth-stone, where you have en- 
joyed so many happy hours ? If not, are you 
guiltless 1 Can you conceive no plan by which 
you might so bring it about that domestic worship 
may be established under the roof that shelters 
you 1 If you can, and do not, are you guiltless ? 
Perhaps the head is irreligious, and you are one of 

9* 



102 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



the younger members. It is not altogether a nat- 
urah state of things that you should be the leader 
in any domestic arrangement ; but should not the 
dreadful condition in Tvhich the family now is, 
without God's favor, under God's wrath, embolden 
and strengthen you to make the effort, to secure 
permission to conduct the service, and to discharge 
it faithfully before God ? Remember, " to him who 
Imoweth to do good, and doeth it not, it is sin^ 
You may expect His blessing if you try. As your 
day, so shall your strength be. Your own Chris- 
tian character will be strengthened ; you will be 
fitted by this effort to enter upon large fields of 
usefulness. " Go forward," is Israel's watch- 
word. Try it — humbly, in God's name, try it 1 You 
cannot tell the result ; but you know it is right, it is 
your duty, to strive to effect this great object. If you 
succeed, you will be withdrawing another family 
from the number of the heathen, and adding it to the 
number of the worshipers. You will have open- 
ed a fountain whose increasing stream may sweep 
in a wide and fertilizing circle through the Church, 
and descend, with its purifying influence, to ages 
far down in this world's history. 

In the following examples, selected from Arvine's 



AN APPEAL. 



103 



Cyclopsedia of Religious Anecdotes, you may find 
an incitement to make an effort in belialf of those 
you love. 

The Son^s Admonition. — My father, says Pro- 
fessor B., was one of those still men who, much as 
he thought of company, carried on his part of 
conversation in brief questions and monosyllabic 
answers. He had deceived himself into the belief 
that his talents were not such as to make it his duty 
to conduct family worship. With this view, he had 
lived for more than forty years, in every other re- 
spect a consistent Christian. A son, who, at the 
time referred to, was preparing for the ministry, 
and already licensed to preach, was spending a 
vacation at home — the last evening of his stay had 
arrived — the family Bible, as usual, is placed be- 
fore him on the stand, with a request to lead in 
prayer. The thought occurred, that now for a year 
or more, whatever devotion might be felt^ no voice 
of prayer could be heard in the family, except from 
the lips of strangers who should turn in for the 
night. The thought affected him, and endeavor- 
ing to use such a manner as would become him in 
addressing a father almost threescore years and 
ten, he said, " Father, I delight to lead in this ex- 



104 



THE HUME-ALTAR. 



ercise when at home, but I am affected with the 
thought that there is to be no more prayer here 
until I shall return. How is it that you have 
never established family prayer ? I know the diffi- 
dence of your nature — I know it would be hard to 
overcome it — but would it not have been attended 
with satisfaction to yourself, and a blessing to your 
family worth a far greater sacrifice? You can 
ask a favor of a neighbor — to do the same thing 
with God, is prayer : and he greatly mistakes who 
thinks that the best prayer is that clothed in the 
most fluent language." The old man was affected 
— said he knew that it was so — and then gave an 
account of his feelings and practice in this respect 
since the commencement of his Christian course. 
Tears glistened in the eyes of some unaccustomed 
to weep for sin, and the father's expression gave 
encouragement to hope that the suggestion would 
not be in vain, and that an altar would still be 
erected vfhence incense and a daily offering should 
daily rise to Heaven. On the following day, be- 
fore leaving, the son mentioned the scene of the 
previous evening to the minister of the place, who 
took an opportunity to add his influence to what 
had been said, and it proved effectual. The man 



AN APPEAL. 



105 



whose voice, though for forty years a professed 
Cliristian and a father, had never been heard in 
prayer by his children, at the age of threescore 
years and ten, commences the discharge of that 
duty in his family, and so far as I know, never 
ceases until the infirmities of age render it impos- 
sible. His children, ten in number, who had not 
before, have since professed the religion of Christ, 
though I cannot say how much the father's prayers 
had to do Vv^itli this result. 

Family Prayer by tvw Daughters. — A gentle- 
man, residing in the western part of the State of 
New York, had sent two of his daughters to Litch- 
field to be educated. While they were there, 
God was pleased to bless the place with a revival 
of religion. The news of it reached the ears of 
their father. He was much troubled for his daugh- 
ters, " apprehensive," tomse his own words, " lest 
their minds should be afiected, and they be fright- 
ened into religion." 

Alive, as he thought, to their happiness, and de- 
termined to allay their fears, and quiet their dis- 
tresses, he sent a friend to Litchfield, with positive 
orders to bring them immediately home, that they 
might not be lost to all happiness and hope, and 



106 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



consigned to gloom and despondency. The mes- 
senger departed on his errand. But they had al- 
ready chosen Chiist for their portion, and had 
resolved that, whatever others might do, they 
would serve the Lord. 

They returned to their father's, not overwhelm- 
ed, as he expected, with gloom and despondency, 
but with hearts glowing with gratitude to God, 
and countenances beaming with serenity and hope. 
Indeed, they rejoice in the Saviour. Soon after 
their return they were anxious to establish family 
worship. They affectionately requested their 
fiither to commence that duty. He replied that 
he saw no use in it. He had lived very well more 
than fifty years without prayer, and he could not 
be burdened with it now. They then asked per- 
mission to pray with the family themselves. Not 
thinking they would hav% confidence to do it, he 
assented to the proposition. 

The duties of the day being ended, and the hour 
for retirino: to rest havinoj arrived, the sisters drew 
forward to the stand, placed on it the Bible ; one 
read a chapter — they both kneeled — the other en- 
gaged in prayer. The father stood, and while the 
humble, fervent prayer of his daughter was ascend- 



AN APPEAL. 



107 



ing to heaven, his knees began to tremble ; he also 
kneeled, and then became prostrate on the floor. 
God heard their prayer, and directed their father's 
weeping eyes, which had never shed tears of peni- 
tence before, to the Lamb of God who taketh away 
the sin of the world. 

Happy family ! a believing father, and believing 
children ! whose God is the Lord. 

Faraily Worship Established by a Child. — A 
boy, about fourteen years of age, who had learned, at 
one of the schools belonging to the Gaelic Society, 
the value of his own soul, was deeply impressed 
with the importance of family religion. As none 
of the family could read but himself, he intimated 
his intention of establishing family worship. No 
answer was made, no opposition started, and as lit- 
tle encouragement given. Still, he made the at- 
tempt. He read the Scriptures, and prayed for 
himself and all present. The rest of the family 
looked on. Alone he continued to worship God in 
this manner for some time, the others being merely 
spectators ; but at length, one after another sunk 
down on their knees beside him, until the whole 
domestic circle united in the hallowed exercise ; 
the gray-headed father kneeling down beside bis 



108 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



cliild, and joining in his artless aspirations to God, 
the Father of all. 

" Sir, who have you been talking with 1" — There 

lived in the town of , in Vermont, a man who 

had a large family of children. He was poor ; 
and unable to keep them at home, he put some of 
them away from him to live. It was the favored 
lot of a little girl, I think, about eight years of age, 
to fail into a family v/here daily prayers were 
offered up to Almighty God. Prayer she was 
unacquainted with. The subject was new to 
her. A t home she never hea.rd a prayer. An 
astonishment seized her, when she saw her master, 
night and morning, standing in one corner of the 
room, talking, as she termed it, with something 
that she could not see. An anxiety swelled in her 
little bosom to know who it could be. Unwilling 
to ask one of the family with whom she lived, yet, 
solicitous to know, she obtained leave to go home. 
She had hardly reached the lonely cottage, before 
she asked her mother who it was that her master 
talked with, when standing in the corner of the 
room night and morning. She told her that she did 
not know, being herself a heathen, though in a 
Christian land. Not satisfied, she asked her 



AN APPEAL. 



109 



father, who answered, in a thoughtless and inhu- 
man manner, " The devil, I suppose." The little 
inquisitive child returned uninformed to her master, 
where she witnessed the same promptitude and holy 
ardor as before. Not many days had elapsed, before 
she summoned fortitude enough to put the question. 

One morning, after her master had been talking 
with the unknown being, she stepped up before 
him, and said, " Sir, who have you been talking 
with, this morning The question was so unex- 
pected, and from such a source, that at first he 
felt unable to answer her ; and was unusually 
impressed with the importance of the duty of pray- 
er, and the weight of obligation resting upon him 
to approach God aright. But after recollecting 
himself a little, he said, and that with reverence, 

I have been trying to talk with God.'' " God," 
said she, with astonishment, " where is he 1 where 
does he live ?" &c. Many questions of a similar 
nature she put with much interest and feeling, to 
which her master gave her such answers as were 
calculated to awaken the liveliest feelings of her 
mind, in regard to Jehovah. After she had learned 
all her little mind could retain of divine things, she 
desired to go home and see her parents, with an 

lU 



110 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



earnestness that could not be resisted. Go she 
must : leave was granted ; she went home to her 
father's cottage, a place where prayer was not 
wont to be made, with her little bosom beating 
with a high tone of pious feeling, in view of the 
importance of prayer. She went to her father, 
and said, " Father, pray." She urged with 
warmth a compliance ; but he utterly refused. She 
then went to her mother, and asked her to pray ; 
but with no better success. She could not endure 
it any longer ; her feelings must vent themselves in 
words. She said, " Let us pray." She knelt down 
and prayed, and it appears to me that Scripture was 
fulfilled. " The effectual, fervent prayer of the right- 
eous availeth much." In answer to her prayer, both 
of her parents were brought under conviction, which 
terminated in hopeful conversion to God. And this 
was the beginning of an extensive revival of religion. 

"The republic is at the firesides," said the 
Roman orator : — the Church is there ^ too. How 
greatly shall we be rewarded if we have strength- 
ened the purposes or assisted the methods of any 
man who already has his family trained to habits 
of domestic piety ! It is a small field, lut it is the 
nursery of the Church. Persevere, brother wor- 



AN APPEAL. 



Ill 



shiper ! The little ones at your side are growing 
for tlie pulpit, for the religious press, for the place 
of social prayer, for the committee of Christian 
enterprise. Fill them with the truth, breathe over 
their widening path the breath of a father's prayer, 
and expect — as you may expect — the blessing 
of the Highest on their souls. Family prayer will 
not save our children. We all know this. But 
we know, also, that it will place them under the 
most favorable circumstances. Faith cometh by 
hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It is en- 
thusiasm to expect the blessing of the Lord without 
using the means which He has appointed. And these 
means should be used with faith. The promise is to 
us and to our children. We may expect His blessing 
who " keepeth mercy for thousands (of generations) 
of those that love Him," if our children are taught 
from their infancy to love Him and to walk in His 
ways. And here it may be well for those of us 
who are attempting to discharge this duty, to re- 
member that it is necessary, to the full effect of this 
labor, that our lives be consistent therewith. We 
shall harden the hearts and strengthen the skepti- 
cism of our families, if we pray for the coming of 
Christ's kingdom, and act so as to prevent its es- 



112 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



tablishment, if we pray for blessings and show by 
our lives that we do not desire them, if we profess 
upon our knees to believe that the eye of the Lord 
is upon us, and then indulge those tempers and 
speak those words which show that we have not the 
Lord in our thoughts all the day long, if we treat 
God's providence and the plan of human redemp- 
tion, and eternity, with its holy heaven and its hor- 
rible hell, as solemn verities, in the prayers which 
we offer, and yet so shape our paths, our business, 
and our pleasures, as if those things were only 
parts of a cunningly-devised fable, so cunningly 
devised that we must express our belief in them, 
yet so certainly fables that they are not to stand in 
the way of our gain or our enjoyment. Let us so 
live that family prayer may manifestly be only one 
of the developments of that love for Jesus which 
should rule our hearts more than any passion. 

A last word to the householder who has nerer 
yet led his family to the Lord for His blessing. 
You profess to believe in the revelations of the 
Bible, that there is a judgment, and a world of woe, 
and a glorious heaven. You have clothed, fed, 
educated your children. You have given them 
comforts. Perhaps you are rich, and have given 



AN APPEAL. 



113 



them luxuries. You have endeavored to introduce 
them to the best society. But, you have never 
assembled them for worship. The appeal is made 
to the heart of a parent. Your child must die. 
You can scarcely believe it, but you know it must 
be so. In that dread hour when you see a thou- 
sand precious clustering hopes going down into the 
grave, when you can scarcely bear the blow, when 
you would give all you have ever inherited or earn- 
ed to bribe inexorable death, and hold • your child 
to your embraces still, — while standing breathless 
in that curtained room in which you have so long 
watched the work of ruin as it has gone noiselessly 
on, that child may call you to him and say — 0, 
could you bear it ? — " Father, you have been kind 
to me, you have done much for me, but I must 
leave you now. Father, I am not ready to die. 
I am a sinner. Father, I have never heard you 
pray. 0, if you had only prayed with us all, I 
might have been arrested and saved. Farewell, 
father ; I forgive you, may God also forgive you !" 
— Could you bear that? It may be in reserve for 
you. Avert it while you may. 

You may die before your children. If you do, 
you will not leave behind an indubitable testimony 

10* 



114 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



for Jesus. Your pastor and your family will reflect 
with pain upon your unfaithfulness in this particu- 
lar. If you have had no family altar, your chil- 
dren have lacked a Christian education, and in 
learning them, it must be with the distressing 
thought that you have been faithless to your dear- 
est. And there is the bar of God, the judgment- 
seat of Christ. Pastor, and wife, and children, 
and servants will meet you there : to none of these 
have you been faithful. The Church, so injured 
by your example, lacking so many blessings, be- 
cause you had no altar at your home, will rise up 
against you. And the privileges and mercies you 
have enjoyed, but have not improved, will speak 
against you. How can you answer for these 1 
Be wise : commence now. Say to your family, 

" O COME, LET us SING UNTO THE LoRD *. LET 
US MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE TO THE RoCK OF OUR 
SALVATION. Let us COME BEFORE HiS PRES- 
ENCE WITH thanksgiving, AND MAKE A JOYFUL 

NOISE UNTO Him with psalms. For the Lord 
is a great God, and a great King above 

all gods. o come, let us worship and bow 

down : let us kneel before the lord our 
Maker. For He is our God ; and we are 



AN APPEAL. 



115 



THE PEOPLE OF HiS PASTURE, AND THE SHEEP 

OF His HANDS." Do this : and when your heart 
and jour flesh fail, there will be those whom your 
have trained to pray, filling your chamber with the 
breath of devotion, circling your bed with the 
power of faith, and commending your departing 
spirit to your God and to their God, to your 
Father and their Father. 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER 

FOR 

SUNDAY MORNING. 



LESSON FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY MORNING II?; 
THE MONTH. 

EXODUS XXXI 

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak 
tliou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily 
my Sabbaths ye shall keep*-: for it is a sign be- 
tween me and you throughout your generations, 
that ye know that I am the Lord that doth sanc- 
tify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore : 
for it is holy unto you. Every one that defileth 
it shall surely be put to death : for whosoever doeth 
any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from 
among his people. Six days may work be done, 
but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to 
the Lord : whosoever doeth any work in the Sab- 
bath-day, he shall surely be put to death. Where- 



118 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



fore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, 
to observe the Sabbath throughout their genera- 
tions, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign be- 
tween me and the children of Israel for ever : for 
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and 
on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. 

NUMBERS XV. 

And while the children of Israel were in the 
wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks 
on the Sabbath-day. And they that found him 
gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and 
Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they 
put him in ward, because it was not declared what 
should be done to him. And the Lord said unto 
Moses, The man shall surely be put to death ; all 
the congregation shall stone him with stones with- 
out the camp. And all the congregation brought 
him without the camp and stoned him with stones, 
and he died ; as the Lord commanded Moses. 

EZEKIEL XX. 

I caused them to go forth out of the land of 
Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. 
And I gave them my statutes, and showed them 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 119 

mj judgments, wliich if a man do, lie shall even 
live in them. Moreover, also I gave them my 
Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that 
they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify 
them. But the house of Israel rebelled against 
me in the wilderness : they walked not in my stat- 
utes, and they despised my judgments, which if a 
man do, he shall even live in them : and my Sab- 
baths they greatly polluted : then I said, I would 
pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to 
consume them. But I wrought for my name's 
sake, that it should not be polluted before the 
heathen, in whose sight I brought them out : Yet 
also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilder- 
ness, that I would not bring them into the land 
which I had given them, flowing with milk and 
honey, which is the glory of all lands ; because 
they despised my judgments, and walked not in 
my statutes, but polluted my Sabbaths : for their 
heart went after their idols. Nevertheless mine 
eye spared them from destroying them, neither did 
I make an end of them in the wilderness. But I 
said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk 
ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither ob- 
serve their judgments, nor defile yourselves with 



120 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



their idols : I am the Lord your God ; walk in 
mj statutes, and keep my judgments, and do 
them ; and hallow my Sabbaths ; and they shall be 
a sign between me and you, that ye may know 
that I am the Lord your God. Notwithstanding, 
the children rebelled against me : they walked not 
in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do 
them, which if a man do, he shall even live in 
them : they polluted my Sabbaths : then I said, I 
would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish 
my anger against them in the wilderness. Never- 
theless, I withdrew my hand, and wrought for my 
name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the 
sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought 
them forth. I lifted up my hand unto them also 
in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among 
the heathen, and disperse them through the coun- 
tries ; because they had not executed my judg- 
ments, but had despised my statutes, and had pol- 
luted my Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their 
fathers' idols. 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 



121 



LESSON FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY MORNING IN 
THE MONTH. 

KEHEMIAH XIII. 

In those days saw I in Judah some treading 
wine-presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in 
sheaves, and lading asses ; as also wine, grapes, 
and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they 
brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day : and I 
testified against them in the day wherein they sold 
victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, 
which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and 
sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah, 
and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the 
nobles of Judah, and said unto them. What evil 
thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath- 
day ? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our 
God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city ? 
yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning 
the Sabbath. And it came to pass, that, when 
the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the 
Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be 
shut, and charged that they should not be opened 
till after the Sabbath : and some of my servants 
set I at the gates, that there should no burden be 
brought in on the Sabbath-day. So the mer- 
11 



122 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



chants and sellers of all kinds of ware lodged with- 
out Jerusalem once or twice. Then I testified 
against them, and said unto them. Why lodge ye 
about the wall 1 if ye do so again, I will lay hands 
on you. From that time forth came they no more 
on the Sabbath. And I commanded the Levites, 
that they should cleanse themselves, and that they 
should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the 
Sabbath-day. Remember me, 0 my God, con- 
cerning this also, and spare me according to the 
greatness of thy mercy. 

JEREMIAH XVII. 

Thus said the Lord unto me : Go and stand in 
the gate of the children of the people, whereby the 
kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go 
out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem. And say 
unto them. Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye kings 
of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates : thus 
saith the Lord; Take heed to yourselves, and 
bear no burden on the Sabbath-day, nor bring it 
in by the gates of Jerusalem ; neither carry forth a 
burden out of your houses on the Sabbath-day, 
neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sab- 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 



123 



bath-day, as I commanded your fathers. But 
they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but 
made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, 
nor receive instruction. And it shall come to 
pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the 
Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of 
this city on the Sabbath-day, but hallow the Sab- 
bath-day, to do no work therein ; then shall there 
enter into the gates of this city kings and princes 
sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots 
and on horses, they and their princes, the men of 
Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem : and this 
city shall remain for ever. And they shall come 
from the cities of Judah, and from the places about 
Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and 
from the plain, and from the mountains, and from 
the south, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, 
and meat-offerings, and incense, and bringing sac- 
rifices of praise, unto the house of the Lord. But 
if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sab- 
bath-day, and not to bear a burden, even entering 
in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day ; 
then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and 
it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it 
shall not be quenched. 



124 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



LESSON FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY MORNING IN 
THE MONTH. 

PSALM V. 

Give ear to mj words, O Lord, cc^isider my 
meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, 
my King, and my God : for unto thee will I pray. 
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, 0 Lord ; 
in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, 
and will look up. For thou art not a God that 
hath pleasure in wickedness : neither shall evil 
dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in 
thy sight : thou hatest all workers of iniquity. 
Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing : the 
Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. 
But as for me, I will come into thy house in the 
multitude of thy mercy : and in thy fear will I 
worship toward thy holy temple. Lead me, 0 
Lord, in thy righteousness, because of mine ene- 
mies ; make thy way straight before my face. For 
there is no faithfulness in their mouth ; their in- 
ward part is very wickedness ; their throat is an 
open sepulchre ; they flatter with their tongue. 
Destroy thou them, 0 God ; let them fall by their 
own counsels ; cast them out in the multitude of 



ORDER OF FAMILY fRAYER. 125 

their transgressions ; for they have rebelled against 
thee. But let all those that put their trust in thee 
rejoice : let them ever shout for joy, because thou 
defendest them : let them also that love thy name 
be joyful in thee. For thou. Lord, wilt bless the 
righteous; with favor wilt thou compass him as 
with a shield. 

PSALM XL VIII. 

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in 
the city of our God, in the mountain of his holi- 
ness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole 
earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, 
the city of the great King. God is known in her 
palaces for a refuge. For lo, the kings were as- 
sembled, they passed by together. They saw it, 
and so they marveled ; they were troubled, and 
hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, 
and pain, as of a woman in travail. Thou break- 
est the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. As 
we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the 
Lord of hosts, in the city of our God : God will 
establish it for ever. Selah. We have thought 
of thy loving-kindness, 0 God, in the midst of thy 
temple. According to thy name, 0 God, so is thy 



126 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



praise unto the ends of the earth : thy right hand 
is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion rejoice, 
let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thj 
judgments. Walk about Zion, and go round 
about her : tell the towers thereof. Mark ye "well 
her bulwarks, consider her palaces ; that ye may 
tell it to the generation following. For this God 
is our God for ever and ever : he will be our guide 
even unto death. 

ANOTHER LESSON FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY 
MORNING IN THE MONTH. 

PSAOI LXVI. 

Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands. 
Sing forth the honor of his name : make his praise 
glorious. Say unto God, How terrible art thou in 
thy works ! through the greatness of thy power 
shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. 
All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing 
unto thee ; they shall sing to thy name. Selah. 
Come and see the works of God ; he is terrible in 
his doing toward the children of men. He turned 
the sea into dry land : they went through the flood 
on foot : there did we rejoice in him. He ruleth 
by his power for ever ; his eyes behold the nations : 



ORDER or FAMILY PRAYER. 127 

let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah. 
O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of 
his praise to be heard : Which holdeth our soul in 
life,, and suffer eth not our feet to be moved. For 
thou, O God, hast proved us : thou hast tried us, 
as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net ; 
thou laidest affliction upon our loins. Thou hast 
caused men to ride over our heads ; we went through 
fire and through water ; but thou broughtest us 
out into a wealthy place. T will go into thy house 
with burnt-offerings : I will pay thee my vows, 
which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath 
spoken, when I was in trouble. I will offer unto 
thee burnt-sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense 
of rams ; I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah. 
Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will 
declare what he hath done for my soul. I cried 
unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with 
my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the 
Lord will not hear me : But verily God hath heard 
me ; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. 
Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my 
prayer, nor his mercy from me. 



128 



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PSALM CXXII. 

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go 
into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand 
within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is 
builded as a city that is compact together : whith- 
er the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the 
testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name 
of the Lord. For there are set thrones of judg- 
ment, the thrones of the house of David. Pray 
for the peace of Jerusalem : they shall prosper that 
love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and pros- 
perity within thy palaces. For my brethren and 
companions' sakes, I will now say. Peace be within 
thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God 
I will seek thy good. 

LESSON FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY MORNING 
IN THE MONTH. 

PSALM LXXXVII. 

His foundation is in the holy mountains. The 
liOrd loveth the gates of Zion more than all the 
dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken 
of tliee, O city of God. Selah. I will make 
mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that 
know me : behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethi- 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 129 



opia ; this man was born there. And of Zion it 
shall be said, This and that man was born in her ; 
and the Highest himself shall establish her. The 
Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, 
that this man was born there. Selah. As well 
the singers as the players on instruments shall bo 
there : all my springs are in thee. 

PSALM LXXXIV. 

How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of 
hosts ! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for 
the courts of the Lord : my heart and my flesh 
crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow 
hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for her- 
self, where she may lay her young, even thine al- 
tars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God. 
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house : they 
will be still praising thee. Selah. Blessed is the 
man whose strength is in thee : in whose heart are 
the ways of them : Who passing through the val- 
ley of Baca make it a well ; the rain also filleth 
the pools. They go from strength to strength, 
every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. 
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer ; give ear, 
O God of Jacob. Selah. Behold, O God our 



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shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed 
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand 
I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my 
God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For 
the Lord God is a sun and shield : the Lord will 
give grace and glory ; no good thing will he with- 
hold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of 
hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. 

LESSON FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY MORNING IN 
THE MONTH. 

MARK XVI. 

And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magda- 
lene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, 
had bought sweet spices, that they might come and 
anoint him. And very early in the morning, the 
first day of the week, they came unto the sepul- 
chre at the rising of the sun ; and they said among 
themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone 
from the door of the sepulchre 1 (And when they 
looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away,) 
for it was very great. And entering into the sep- 
ulchre, they saw a young, man sitting on the right 
side, clothed in a long white garment ; and they 
were affrighted. And he saith unto them. Be not 



ORDEE. OF FAMILY PRAYER. 131 

affrighted : ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was 
crucified : he is risen ; he is not here : behold the 
place where they laid him. But go your way, tell 
his disciples and Peter, that he goeth before you 
into Galilee : there shall ye see him, as he said 
unto you. And they went out quickly, and fled 
from the sepulchre ; for they trembled, and were 
amazed ; neither said they anything to any man ; 
for they were afraid. Now, when Jesus was risen 
early, the first day of the week, he appeared first 
to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven 
devils. And she went and told them that had 
been with him, as they mourned and wept. And 
they, when they had heard that he was alive, and 
had been seen of her, behoved not. After that he 
appeared in another form unto two of them, as 
they walked, and went into the country. And 
they went and told it unto the residue : neither be- 
lieved they them. Afterward he appeared unto 
the eleven, as they sat at meat, and upbraided 
them with their unbelief, and hardness of heart, 
because they believed not them which had seen 
him after he was risen. And he said unto them, 
Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel 
to every creature. He that believeth and is bap- 



132 



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tized shall be saved ; but be that believetb not 
shall be damned. And these signs shall follow 
them that believe : In my name shall they cast out 
devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ; they 
shall take up serpents ; and if they drink any 
deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; they shall 
lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So 
then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, he wa«! 
received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand 
of God. And they went forth and preached every 
where, the Lord working with them, and confirm- 
ing the word with signs following. Amen. 

On the morning of a Communion Sabbath the fol- 
lowing Lesson may be used. 

MAEK Xiv; 

And the first day of unleavened bread, when 
they killed the passover, his disciples said unto 
him. Where wilt thou that we go and prepare, 
that thou mayest eat the passover 1 And he send- 
eth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, 
Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a 
man bearing a pitcher of water : follow him. And 
wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the good-man 
of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guest- 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 133 

chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my 
disciples ? And he will show you a large upper 
room furnished and prepared : there make ready 
for us. And his disciples went forth, and came 
into the city, and found as he had said unto them : 
and they made ready the passover. And in the 
evening he cometh with the twelve. And as they 
sat, and did eat, Jesus said. Verily I say unto you, 
One of you which eateth with me shall betray me. 
And they began to be sorrovfful, and to say unto 
him one by one. Is it I ? and another said, Is it I ? 
And he answered and said unto them. It is one of 
the twelve that dippeth with me in the dish. The 
Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him : 
but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is 
betrayed ! good were it for that man if he had 
never been born. And as they did eat, Jesus took 
bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them 
and said, Take, eat : this is my body. And he 
took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he 
gave it to them : and they all drank of it. And 
he said unto them. This is my blood of the new 
testament, which is shed for many. Verily, I say 
unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the 
vine, until that day that I drink it new in the king- 



134 



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dom of God. And when they had sung a hymn, 
they went out into the mount of Olives. 

I COR. XI, 

For I have received of the Lord, that which also 
I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the 
same night in which he was betrayed, took bread : 
And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and 
said, Take, eat : this is my body, which is broken 
for you ; this do in remembrance of me. After 
the same manner also he took the cup, when he 
had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament 
in my blood : this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in 
remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this 
bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's 
death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall 
eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, 
unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood 
of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and 
so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, 
eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not dis- 
cerning the Lord's body. For this cause many 
are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 
For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 135 

judged. But when we are judged, we are chas- 
tened of the Lord, that we should not be con- 
demned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, 
when ye come together to eat, tarry one for an- 
other. And if any man hunger, let him eat at 
home : that ye come not together unto condemna- 
tion. 

After the Morning Lesson may follow the Ten 
Commandments, which the whole family may repeat 
together, or the head of the family repeating one, may 
be answered by the other members of the family re- 
peating the next, and so alternate!}'. 

Thou shalt have no other gods betore me. Thou 
shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor 
the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, 
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the 
water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down 
thyself to them, nor serve them. For I the Lord 
thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of 
the fathers upon the children, unto the third and 
fourth generation of them that hate me ; and show- 
ing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, 
and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not 
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain : for 



136 



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I 

! 



the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh 
his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath-day to 
keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do 
all thy work ; but the seventh day is the Sabbath 
of the Lord thy God : In it thou shalt not do any 
work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy 
man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, 
nor the stranger that is within thy gates. For in 
six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, 
and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day : 
Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and 
hallowed it. Honor thy father and thy mother, 
that thy days may be long upon the land which 
the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not 
kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou 
shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false wit- 
ness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet 
thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid- 
servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that 
is thy neighbor's. 

Then may a Hymn be sung by the whole family. 
After which the person who conducts the service may 
use the following prayer ; or, prayer may be offered 
first, then a hymn be sung with an appropriate dox- 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 137 



ology, after which the Apostolic benediction may be 
pronounced. 

Almighty and Most Merciful God, our Heavenly- 
Father, who hast made us to know and serve Thee 
on earth and to enjoy Thee in Heaven, look down 
from Thy high and holy dwelling-place upon us 
who have our habitations in the dust, and so en- 
lighten us by Thy Holy Spirit, and strengthen us 
by Thy heavenly grace, that all our prayers may 
be offered to Thy Divine Majesty in humility, 
penitence, and faith. 

We adore Thee that Thou hast called us to a 
knowledge of Thyself, that Thou hast appointed 
Thy Sabbaths upon earth, and established Thy 
Church among men. And now we beseech Thee 
to prepare our hearts to worship Thee all this day 
in spirit and in truth. Cleanse the thoughts of 
our hearts by the inspiration of Thy holy word. 
May the words of our mouths and the meditations 
of our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight, 0 Lord, 
our strength and our Redeemer. Send the Spirit 
of truth into our minds this day, that we may un- 
derstand the teachings of the Sacred Scriptures 
Grant us the spirit of grace and of supplication 

12* 



138 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



Help US to offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanks- 
giving on this Thy day which Thou hast made, 
and to pay our vows unto the Lord in the sight of 
all Thy people. May we see the beauty of the 
Lord in Thy temple. Help us to banish all vain 
and worldly thoughts from our minds. May no 
remembrances of the business and pleasure of the 
past, may no care and anxiety for the future, in- 
terrupt our worship. Help us to receive with 
meekness the engrafted word, which is able to 
make us wise unto salvation. And we humbly 
supplicate God that He will bless our pastor this 
day with bodily and spiritual strength, and give 
him encouragement in the labors of the ministry, 
that so he may be a great blessing to us ; and 
may we never be an afiliction to him. May no 
member of our family do those things which weak- 
en the hands of the pious and strengthen the hands 
of the wicked. In all our walk this day may we 
be thoughtful and prayerful, remembering the 
Sabbath to keep it holy, and waiting upon the 
Lord so that we may renew our spiritual strength. 
Upon all who this day labor and pray for the ex- 
tension of Christ's kingdom send down the Holy 
Ghost, that they may be abundantly refreshed and 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 



139 



strengthened ; and let all the congregations of Thy 
people be made to rejoice in that King whom Thou 
hast set upon Thy holy hill of Zion. 



All these mercies, and whatever is best for us, 
we ask for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. 

Our Father who art in heaveri, hallowed be thy 
name ; thy kingdom come ; thy will be done on 
earth as it is in heaven : give us this day our 
daily bread ; and forgive us our trespasses as we 
forgive them that trespass against us ; and lead 
us not info temptation^ but deliver us from evil. 
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the 
glory, for ever and ever. Amen. 

SUNDAY EVENING. 

To the usual lesson for the evening may be added 
one of the following Psalms. It may be found profit- 
able to vary the service by letting the whole family 
repeat the alternate verses. 



140 



THE HOME -ALTAR. 



FIRST SUNDAY EVENING IN THE MONTH. 

PSALM IV. 

1. Hear me when I call, O God of mj right- 
eousness : thou hast enlarged me when I was in 
distress ; have mercy upon me, and hear my 
prayer. 

2. 0 ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my 
glory into shame 1 how long will ye love vanity, 
and seek after leasing 1 Selah. 

3. But know that the Lord hath set apart him 
that is godly for himself ; the Lord will hear when 
I call unto him. 

4. Stand in awe, and sin not : commune with 
your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Se- 
lah. 

5. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put 
your trust in the Lord. 

6. There be many that say, Who will show us 
any good 1 Lord, lift thou up the light of thy 
countenance upon us. 

7. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more 
than in the time that their corn and their wine in- 
creased. 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 141 



8. I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep : 
for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. 

SECOND SVNDAY EVENING. 

PSALM CXXI. 

1. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from 
whence cometh my help. 

2. My help cometh from the Lord, which made 
heaven and earth. 

3. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved : he 
that keepeth thee will not slumber. 

4. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither 
slumber nor sleep. 

5. The Lord is thy keeper : the Lord is thy 
shade upon thy right hand. 

6. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the 
moon by night. 

T. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil : 
he shall preserve thy soul. 

8. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and 
thy coming in from this time forth, and even for 
evermore. 



142 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



THIRD SUNDAY EVENING. 

PSALM XXVII. 

1. The Lord is my light and my saltation ; 
-whom shall I fear 1 the Lord is the strength of my 
life ; of whom shall I be afraid 1 

2. When the wicked, even mine enemies and 
my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they 
stumbled and fell. 

3. Though a host should encamp against me, 
my heart shall not fear : though war should rise 
against me, in this will I be confident. 

4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that 
will I seek after ; that I may dwell in the house 
of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the 
beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. 

5. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me 
in his pavilion : in the secret of his tabernacle 
shall he hide me ; he shall set me up upon a rock. 

6. And now shall my head be lifted up above 
mine enemies round about me : therefore will I 
offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy ; I will 
sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. 

7". Hear, 0 Lord, when I cry with my voice : 
have mercy also upon me, and answer me. 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 143 

8. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face ; my 
heart said unto thee. Thy face, Lord, will I seek. 

9. Hide not thy face far from me ; put not thy 
servant away in anger : thou hast been my help ; 
leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my 
salvation. 

10. When my father and my mother forsake 
me, then the Lord will take me up. 

11. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me 
in a plain path, because of mine enemies. 

12. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine 
enemies : for false'witnesses are risen up against 
me, and such as breathe out cruelty. 

13. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see 
the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. 

14. Wait on the Lord : be of good courage, 
and he shall irtrengthen thy heart : wait, I say, on 
the Lord. 

FOURTH SUNDAY EVENING. 

PSALM CXXVII. 

1. Except the Lord build the house, they labor 
in vain that build it : except the Lord keep the 
city, the watchman waketh but in vain. 

2. It is in favor you to rise up early, to sit up 



144 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



late, to eat the bread of sorrows : for so he givetn 
his beloved sleep. 

3. Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord : and 
the fruit of the womb is his reward. 

4. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man ; 
so are children of the youth. 

5. Happy is the man that hath his quiver fall 
of them : they shall not be ashamed, but they 
shall speak with the enemies in the gate. 

FIFTH SUNDAY EVENING. 

PSALM XCII. 

1. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the 
Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, 0 Most 
High. 

2. To show forth thy loving-kindness in the 
morning, and thy faithfulness every night. 

3. Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon 
the psaltery ; upon the harp with a solemn sound. 

4. For thou. Lord, hast made me glad through 
thy AYork : I will triumph in the works of thy 
hands. 

5. 0 Lord, how great are thy works ! and thy 
thoughts are very deep. 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 146 

6. A brutish man knowetli not 5 neither doth a 
fool understand this. 

T. When the wicked spring as the grass, and 
when all the workers of iniquity do flourish ; it is 
that they shall be destroyed for ever : 

8. But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore. 

9. For lo, thine enemies, O Lord, for lo, thine 
enemies shall perish ; all the workers of iniquity 
shall be scattered. 

10. But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn 
of a unicorn : I shall be anointed with fresh oil. 

11. Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine 
enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the 
wicked that rise up against me. 

12. The righteous shall flourish like the palm- 
tree : he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 

13. Those that be planted in the house of the 
Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. 

14. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age ; 
they shall be fat and flourishing ; 

15. To show that the Lord is upright : he is my 
rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. 

18 



146 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



SUNDAY EVENING PRAYER. 

O God, the Father of the spirits of all flesh, we, 
Thine unworthy children, come unto Thee again 
this night, gratefully returning thanks for the 
manifold mercies shown us through this day. We 
praise and magnify Thy Holy Name that Thou 
hast kept our eyes from tears, our feet from fall- 
ing, and our souls from death. We thank Thee 
that we have been permitted to sing Thy praises 
in Thy Church, to unite in the prayers and sup- 
plications of Thy saints, and to hear Thy most holy 
word. Forgive the sins of our holy things. Re- 
member not against us the hardness of our hearts 
and the wanderings of our minds, but grant us 
grace ever hereafter to worship and serve Thee 
with reverence and with godly fear. Help us in 
all our works this week to remember Thy com- 
mandments to do them. Take away the evil 
heart of unbelief from us, and give us pure, and 
gentle, and affectionate hearts. We know that we 
ought to love Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 
We acknowledge that we do not love Him enough, 
and that we do not feel how He has loved us. O 
manifest Him unto us as our Saviour, and from 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 147 



week to week and from day to day, may He ap- 
pear unto us as the fairest among ten thousand 
and altogether lovely. Save us from trusting to 
our public acts of worship, to anything we have 
done or can do, but grant unto us the regeneration 
of our souls, and a daily spiritual communion with 
Christ. The Lord grant that His word, as this 
day preached all over the world, may be quick and 
powerful. Help all Christian people to feel how 
blest they are in seeing and hearing these things, 
which Kings and Prophets long desired, but never 
saw; and grant them a heart to extend all the 
blessings of our most Holy Faith to the ends of 
the earth. O send out Thy light and Thy truth. 
Let the nations that sit in darkness soon see the 
glory of God shining in the face of Jesus. 

I ■ ) 

When we lay us down to rest, our trust is in 
Thee. Save us from the pestilence that walketh 
in darkness. Thou hast been about our path, O 
be about our bed. May we be saved from all 
sudden alarms and amazements, and rise in the 
morning refreshed by our sleep, strong in the 
Lord, and in the power of Thy might to do all 



148 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



Thy Holy will. And finally, when we come to 
lie down in the grave, may we rest in hope, and on 
the morning of the resurrection rise with the just 
to the enjoyment of Thy presence, to the everlast- 
ing worship of Heaven, where there is no night, 
and vv^here we will praise Thee, 0 Father, and Thy 
Son our blessed Saviour and the Holy Spirit, 
evermore. 

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be 
Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be 
done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this 
day our daily bread. And forgive us our tres- 
passes, as we forgive those who trespass against 
as. And lead us not into temptation ; But de- 
liver us from evil ; For thine is the kingdom, and 
the power, and the glorv, for ever and ever. 
Amen. 

MONDAY MORNING. 

O Lord, our Heavenly Father, who hast brought 
as to the beginning of this another day, defend us 
therein by Thy mighty power. Grant that we 
may not fall into any danger, nor indulge ourselves 
in any sins, but may we be governed by Thy Holy 
word, and guided by Thy Holy Spirit, and cleansed 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 149 

by Thy Holy blood, so as to be acceptable in Thy 
sight. Grant us grace, merciful Father, to bear 
in our memory, and to carry out in our lives this 
week, all that we learned of Thy righteous will on 
Thy Holy Day. Wherever we go, may we remem- 
ber that Thou seest us. With whatever fierce 
temptations Satan may beset us, may we fly to Thee 
for succor and deliverance. And if he shall come 
to us as an angel of light, grant us Thy Holy Spirit, 
that we may not be ignorant of his devices. May 
we this week avoid all evil ; may we do all the good 
we can to the bodies and souls of men ; may we dis- 
charge every duty which Thou hast enjoined upon 
us ; and in all things live as seeing Him who is in- 
visible. 0 restrain us from the evils and follies 
into which we are prone to fall ; and quicken us to 
the offices and duties which we are loth to per- 
form. 

Teach us, O Lord, to use this world as not 
abusing it ; and so to enjoy the things that are in it, 
that they may not engross our affections. What- 
ever we have of the world, O let it be sanctified to 
us by the word of God and prayer. And what- 
ever we may want of the things of this life, leave 
us not destitute of the things which accompany sai- 
ls* 



150 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



vatlon ; but do Thou adorn our souls with all the 
graces of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may glorify 
Thee in all things, and that our conversation may 
be such as becometh the Gospel of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. And if it shall be Thy 
righteous will to remove us from earth this week, 
may we be found of our Lord, watching and faith- 
ful, and ready to give up our spirits with joy into 
the hands of our Redeemer. 

And while vfe may pray for ourselves, we hum- 
bly supplicate Thy blessings in behalf of all who 
praise and serve Thee. Strengthen them in Thy 
service, and let all the families and nations of the 
earth avoid all causes of strife, and live together in 
the peace of God, and in the love of Jesus. 

And now. Lord, condescend to us, and hear us, 
and consider our meditation. Hear our voice early 
in the morning, and turn not away from our sup- 
plications. Tarry not, O Lord, but help us, as 
Thou hast in past times, and we will rejoice under 
the shadow of Thy wings. Our souls hang upon 
Thee. Thou upholdest us. O guide us by thy 
counsel, and afterward receive us unto glory, 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 151 



through the merits of Thy Son our adorable Sa- 
viour, Jesus Christ. 
Our Father, &c. 

MONDAY EVENING. 

O Lord, Thou art nigh unto them that are of ^ 
contrite heart, and wilt save such as be of an hum- 
ble spirit. Thou art full of compassion and mercy, 
long-suffering, and plenteous in goodness and truth. 
Turn thou unto us, 0 Lord, and have mercy upon 
us, and give Thy strength unto Thy servants, and 
show us some token for good. Consider and hear 
us, 0 Lord our God, for we confess and bewail our 
sins, and desire to turn from them with full pur- 
pose of heart. It is of Thy great forbearance that 
we have been spared during this day. For all the 
good Thou hast granted, for all the evil Thou 
hast withheld, make us truly grateful ; and let 
Thy mercies lead us to repentance. May we not 
take the continuance of our lives as a thing of 
course, but receive every hour as a special gift, and 
use it in the remembrance that for all the improve- 
ment we may therein make, and for all the good 
we may therein do, we must give a strict ac- 
count. 



152 



JUE HOME-ALTAR. 



Forgive us the faults and pardon us the sins we 
have this day committed. 0, let us not go to our 
beds as the brute beasts that think not ; but call- 
ing to mind all we have done, and humbling our- 
selves before Thee, and trusting in the merits and 
mediation of Thy Son Jesus Christ our Saviour, 
may we have a full forgiveness, and the Spirit of the 
Lord bearing witness with our spirits that we are 
the children of God. And being refreshed with 
sleep when the season thereof shall arrive, may we 
wake in the morning and find Thee still with us : 
and strong in the Lord, and in the power of Thy 
might, may we enter upon the duties and joys of 
another day. 0 Lord, make ours truly a Christian 
family. Grant unto us, whom Thou hast placed in 
the responsibility of being head of this family, 
that meekness of wisdom and that beauty of holiness 
which shall ever give us such influence over all 
that are with us, that we may be able to lead them 
to Jesus. Bless our parents. Even down to hoary 
hairs be their stay, Let their prayers in our be- 
half be returned a hundred-fold into their own 
bosoms. May they see their virtues by the grace 
of God reproduced in us. May they find in Thee 
a gentle and compassionate Father, and in heaven 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 



153 



aa exalted and enduring home. We pray for our 
servants, that they may be made the servants of 
the living God. May they be so faithful to us, 
and we so faithful to them, that we shall not have 
occasion to upbraid each other at the judgment- 
seat of Christ. Strengthen and console them in 
their labors with the graces of Thy Spirit, and the 
hope of everlasting reward. Have compassion on 
our dear children. Save them from the follies and 
dangers of youth, and make them obedient in all 
things. Prepare them for Thy future service ; and 
when they shall have done Thy will upon earth, 
may they be joint-heirs with us in that inheritance 
which Thou hast prepared for all who love Thee. 



Hear us. Heavenly Father, and answer us in 
these our prayers, through Jesus Christ Thy Son, 
our Lord. 

Our Father, &c. 

TUESDAY MORNING. 

The angels veil their faces before Thee, O Lord, 
and shall not dust and ashes be humbled in the 
presence of Thy Majesty? O Lord, we are afraid 



154 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



that we have offered unto Thee too often the ex- 
pressions of our lips, while our hearts have not 
been in them. Pardon this our great sin, and 
grant us grace to be sincere in every act of worship. 
O, may Ave not confess sins of which we are not 
conscious, which we do not deplore, and are not 
willing to forsake. O, may we not thank Thee for 
Thy blessings, while we do not feel how great and 
how precious they are. O, may we not ask for 
mercies which we do not really desire. But, good 
Lord, help us ever to worship Thee with reverence 
and with godly fear, so that we may be heard when 
we call upon Thee in the name of Jesus Christ. 

We have been spared to see the light of another 
day, not because of any merit there is in us, but 
of Thy great goodness, O Lord, who dost live and 
govern all things. Help us to number our days 
so as to apply our hearts unto wisdom, and as 
we grow in old age, may we grow in grace and in 
the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. Grant that every good disposition may 
be formed in us by the daily study of Thy Holy 
word, which is able to make us wise unto salvation. 
May we have that faith in Christ which will break 
down our pride, root out our selfishness, and stir 
up our activities. Grant us grace to lead lives of 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 155 

faith in Jesus, so that our daily work may be sanc- 
tified, and all the labors of our hands being begun in 
Him and completed for Him, may be performed with 
satisfaction to our own spirits, and bring glory to His 
excellent name. Help us to adorn the doctrine of 
God our Saviour in all things, even in the meanest 
offices of life which we may be called to perform. 
In all our business, may we remember that a review 
of the transactions with which we are connected 
will be had at Thy dread bar, and may we do all 
things heartily as unto God, and not unto man. 

We pray for the Church throughout the world, 
that all Thy followers may be true-hearted and 
humble, walking in the footsteps of Jesus, avoiding 
even the appearance of evil, and keeping them- 
selves unspotted from the world. Save Thy 
Church from the evils which backsliders, apostates, 
and hypocrites would bring upon it. Keep Thy 
ministers holy, and Thy people pure. Save the 
Shurch from the curse of formality, from man- 
jvorship, from a vain and worldly spirit, and from 
covetousness, which is idolatry. Animate Thy 
people with strong desire to spread the Gospel 
over the earth, and may no labors be considered 
by them too arduous, no sacrifices too great, to 



156 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



promote the Redeemer's kingdom. Grant that 
our family may not be behind in any good work. 
Make us unselfish. Let the mind which was iu 
Jesus be also in us, that we may have the honor 
of being His friends and the happiness of entering 
into His joy. 

All that we desire now and ever is asked in the 
name and through the infinite mercies of Christ, 
our Mediator. 

Our Father, &c. 

TUESDAY EVENING. 

O Lord, the heaven is Thy throne and the earth is 
Thy footstool, and yet Thou hast graciously prom- 
ised to look to that man who is poor and of a con- 
trite spirit and trembleth at Thy word. Regard 
us in Thy tender compassion. We humble our- 
selves under Thy mighty hand. We are not 
worthy to be called Thy children, 0 Father ; 
neither are we worthy to be of the number of Thy 
servants. We have done wrong so often, we have 
sinned against such light and such love, amid so 
many mercies and kindnesses from the Lord, that 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 



157 



we are ashamed this evening, and bow us in the 
dust before our Maker. But Thou art not willinoj 
that we should perish. Thou hast given Thj Son 
to die for our sins. Thou hast filled Thy word 
with great and precious promises. We come 
pleading those promises. We come presenting 
again the plea of the adorable Redeemer's death. 
0, for Christ's sake, have mercy upon us. Pardon 
and forgive us as individuals, and if as a family 
we have failed this day to hold forth the word of 
Life, if those who have come from beneath our 
roof have gone away unblest because of our worldly- 
mindedness and vanity, if the slightest root of bit- 
terness has sprung up in our midst, if we have 
failed to bear with each other and to pray for each 
other, if any undue severity or any carelessness or 
looseness has been manifested in our attempts to 
discharge our duties, the Lord have mercy upon 
us, help us to make humble confession, to avoid 
hereafter the occasion of evil, and to trust in the 
blood and merits of Jesus Christ for final redemp- 
tion. 

Every day shows us. Heavenly Father, how un- 
certain is this life. Grant that amidst its changes 
our hearts may be fixed where there are true, and 



158 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



pure, and permanent jojs. Let the main tendency 
of our hearts be heavenward. May our treasure 
be laid up in the skies, may our hearts be there, 
may we hourly journey thither. 0, grant us grace 
to consider no burden too hea^^y to be borne, no 
cross too bitter to be endured, no foe too fierce to 
be met, so that we Aay do all Thou wouldst have 
us to do, so that we may be made meet to be par- 
takers of the inheritance of the saints in light, so 
that at the last an abundant entrance may be min- 
istered unto us into Christ's everlasting kingdom. 

And now, Lord, we adore Thee as well for our 
temporal as for our spiritual favors. We thank 
Thee that this day we have not lacked bread, we 
thank Thee that our reason has been continued to us, 
and that so many domestic comforts still surround 
us. We bless Thee for the advantages of living in 
a free and prosperous country. For our civil privi- 
leges, for our social enjoyments, for all our gifts 
of nature, of fortune and of grace, we render Thee 
our humble and hearty thanks. May we never 
forget that every good and every perfect gift is 
from above, and cometh down from Thee, the 
Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness or 
shadow of turning. 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 159 



And now we commit to Thy hands our children, 
our servants, our friends, and all that pertains to 
our interests, humbly beseeching Thee to have a 
Fatherly care over us in the hours of sleep, and to 
bring us, at the last, to Thy abode and Thy glory, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Our Father, &c. 

W^EDNESDAY MORNING. 

Lord, we rejoice that Thou art King, that all 
power is in Thy hands, for we know that Thou art 
merciful, and although clouds and darkness are 
round about Thee, that righteousness and judg- 
ment are the habitation of Thy seat. In all our 
perplexities, amid the things that are too deep for 
our poor finite minds, we would trust in Him w^ho 
is able to bring to pass all the counsels of His will, 
to lead us a way we have not known, to do for us 
exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or even 
think. 

And now, Father, receive our most humble grati- 
tude for the preservation of our lives through an- 
other night. While others have been in tears, in 



160 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



anxieties, and in death, we have slept so peacefully. 
No rude alarms have disturbed us ; no foe has in- 
vaded ; no pestilence has wasted us. Surely good- 
ness and mercy have followed us. And now, 
Lord, what shall we render unto Thee for all Thy 
benefits ? Shall we not this day be more humble, 
more faithful, more trustful, more devoted ? Lord, 
help us ! 0, may no sin stain our souls this day. 
May the thought of Thy presence give us a horror 
of iniquity, and cheer us in our efforts to serve 
Thee. Silence the accuser when he rises up 
against us. Keep us from being too much deject- 
ed, if losses and afflictions come. May we remem- 
ber where our stronghold is, and fly to Jesus as 
our refuge in all times of trial and trouble. 

The Lord grant unto us family blessings this 
day. Let peace and contentment, let righteous- 
ness and loving-kindness dwell in our midst. Let 
Thy religion make our home a sanctuary, and ever 
may we turn to this hallowed spot from the tumult, 
business, cares, and noise of the outer world, re- 
membering that here God is night and morning 
hearing our prayer, and for the sake of our Lord 
Jesus Christ forgiving our sins. If there be in 
our hearts anything which makes Thy service other 



ORDER OF FAMILTc PRAYER. 161 



tlian a delight, 0, for Thy Name's sake and for 
Thy mercy's sake, take it far from us, and make 
Thy love sweeter to us than honey and the honey- 
comb. 

The Lord bless our neighbors. We thank Thee 
that they are disposed to be so kind to us. Lord, 
show us how to do them good. Help us at all 
times to strive to be a blessing to their bodies and 
their souls, and may they be a blessing to us. 
Bless those of them who call upon Thy Name. 
And have mercy upon such as know Thee not, 
neither worship nor serve Thee. Turn their hearts 
to the Saviour and their feet to Thy Command- 
ments. 

If there be any, 0 Lord, who have so far honor- 
ed Thee as to request us to pray for them, in Thy 
great goodness visit them now wherever they are, 
on sea or land, and cheer, strengthen, and encour- 
age them in all holy things, and so sanctify even 
their afflictions that all things may work together 
for their good. Bless and comfort, and save all 
our friends and relations. Have mercy upon our 
enemies. Make them to be at peace with Thee 
and with us, and may we hereafter, as much as in 
us lies, live peaceably with all men. 

14* 



162 



THE KOME-ALTAR. 



And now, 0 Lord, we go about our daily busi- 
ness. Bless us before we go ! Unless Thou aid 
us, how can we succeed ? Lord, have mercj upon 
us, and strengthen us. Give us such success as 
shall be best for us, and in all things grant us faith 
in Thy wisdom and everlasting goodness. 

These, and all blessings, we humbly crave in the 
name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. 

Our Father, &c. 

WEDNESDAY EVENING. 

Once more, Holy Father, we come to Thy .mercy- 
seat, which is sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb 
of God. To Thee we offer both praise and prayer 
through Christ, who once suffered for our sins, the 
just for the unjust, to bring us unto Thee. How 
shall we sufficiently thank and adore Thee for such 
a High Priest, who is touched with a feeling of 
our infirmities, who was in all points tempted like 
as we are, yet without sin ! Through Him may 
w^e this night come boldly unto the throne of grace, 
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help 
in time of need. 0, for the sake of Jesus, and for 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 163 

the sake of that Blessed Spirit also, who helpeth 
our infirmities and maketh intercessions for us with 
groanings that cannot be uttered, hear us, good 
Lord, and have mercj upon us. We believe that 
Thou dost hear us when we pray in faith. O, 
increase our faith ! Help us ever to trust in Thy 
infinite mercies in Christ Jesus, and to rest our 
poor weary souls on the great and precious prom- 
ises. 

While we remember our sins, we would not be 
forgetful of Thy favors. Thou hast blessed us. 
Glory be unto Thy Holy Name that the Infinite 
God still condescends to the worms He has made, 
and that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of 
Man, does still manifest Himself to His faithful 
followers as He does not unto the world. May we 
never forget the seasons of consolation which we 
have found in waiting upon the Lord, the hours 
when Thou didst make our cup to run over, when 
Jesus seemed so near and so precious to us, when 
our souls fed upon Him by faith, and when the 
Holy Spirit descended upon our souls with such 
celestial influences. 0 Lord, increase these sea- 
sons. Give us more faith and love. When we 
gather to this our place of prayer, may it be with 



164 



THE HuME-ALTAR. 



rejoicing and deliglit in the service of God. O 
Lord, save us from formality, from deadness, and 
from carelessness in our family worship. With 
the purest and holiest affections may we come 
night and morning to Thee, our dearest and best 
Friend. With the simplicity of little children 
may we seek Thy face and favor, and, being re- 
freshed by Thy grace, may we become more and 
more dead to the world, more and more spiritually- 
minded, more and more wrapped up in the cause 
of the Blessed Redeemer. 



We would not forget any for whom it is our 
duty to pray. Bless and save all who are in any 
wise connected with this family. Increase vital 
piety throughout this land, and let altars be erected 
to Thy Great, and Holy, and Gracious Name in the 
midst of thousands of families amongst us who are 
now prayerless. 0, show unto us all that right- 
eousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a disgrace 
to any people. Bless the President of the United 
States, bless our legislators, bless all in authority. 
0, guide their counsels to such issue that wars 
and contentions may be avoided, that peace, pros- 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 165 



perity, and piety may be promoted, and this nation 
become the joy of all lands, the glory of the whole 
earth. Grant us grace to discharge all the duties 
of Christian citizenship, to be contented, loving 
our laws, respecting our rulers, and ready to spend 
our strength and our substance for the land which 
the Lord hath loved, and delivered, and blessed. 

Continue to us all the civil and religious bless- 
ings which we now enjoy. May they not incline 
us to indulge in presumptuous sins, but may we 
ever remember that all power is in Thy hands, 
that Thou settest up one and pullest down an- 
other ; and, walking humbly before God and trust- 
ing with simplicity in Jesus Christ as our present 
and all-sufficient Saviour, may we so pass the 
waves of this troublesome world that in the world 
to come we may have everlasting life. 

Our Father, &c 

THURSDAY MORNING. 

Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, and the 
God of our fathers, who turnest the shadow of 
death into the morning, and renewest the face of 
the earth ; who hast delivered us from the terror 
by night and from the pestilence that walketh in 



166 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



darkness, who has enlightened our eyes that we 
should not sleep in death, and who ma,kest the out- 
goings of the morning and evening to praise Thee ! 

We magnify Thy Holy Name, Father of Mer- 
cies, for all Thy goodness to us. Thou hast pre- 
served us through another night from sin and sor- 
row, from accidents and deaths. We have not 
deserved this at Thy hands. It is of Thy good- 
ness that we are not consumed, because Thy com- 
passions fail not. And now, 0 God of our life, as 
Thou hast added another day to our earthly exist- 
ence, grant the additional favors of spiritual light 
and strength, that the works ■\^'hich we shall this 
day endeavor to accomplish may be begun, and 
continued, and ended in Thee. May we not do 
anything which shall be a grief to others, or an 
hinderance to their salvation. May none of our 
acts be such that the remembrance of them will 
give us remorse in the hour of death. Whatsoever 
we may do, may we do all to Thy glory, and in 
the assurance of Thy approbation may we find our 
exceeding great reward. 0, take far from us the 
fear of man, which bringeth a snare. Fill us with 
that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of 
wisdom ; and while we are seeking the knowledge 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. . 16T 



of those things which advance our worldly interests, 
may we be more anxious to become wise unto sal- 
vation. We acknowledge, Father, that our minds 
are low and earthly, that little cares absorb and 
little vexations trouble us too much. Lift up our 
minds to Thee. Fix our affections on things above. 
Let our lives be hid with Christ in God. Extend 
our hopes beyond this present life, and may we 
feel hourly that eternity is at hand, and that there 
are thrones and mansions which we may possess. 
Forbid that, for a moment's sinful pleasure, any 
member of our family may be driven by the pro- 
pensities of a corrupt heart, or drawn by the ex- 
ample of a crooked and perverse generation, to do 
those things which shall cause them to forfeit ever- 
lasting life. 

0 God, the author of our existence, Thou in 
whose hand are the souls of all mankind and the 
breath of every living thing, we desire ever to 
cherish a simple reliance on Thy all-wise Provi- 
dence. We know that not a sparrow falleth with- 
out Thee. We know that the very hairs of our 
head are all numbered. We believe that Thou 
wilt care for us even down to the grave and in 



168 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



eternity. We would not, therefore, be very careful 
about dying, knowing that Jesus Christ hath con- 
quered death and led captivity captive. We pray 
for grace to live every hour in such a manner that 
when Thou shalt call we may be ready to enter 
into the joy of our Lord. We know not when 
Thou wilt summon us away. 0, help us to watch 
and pray, that we enter not into temptation. And 
if it be Thy will, in our last hour may we have 
such use of our faculties that we may glorify Thee 
with our dying breath. Give us grace to look unto 
Jesus and to commit our spirits into Thy hands, 
and to feel that we depart this life in love and 
charity with all mankind, in the communion of the 
saints, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and in 
an unwavering hope of a glorious resurrection. 

And now. Lord, send along all our paths this 
day, and to all our works, the cheering Spirit of 
Thy heavenly grace. May we be glad in our 
Saviour and strong in the Lord, and do that this 
day which shall live forever to Thy everlasting 
glory and to our everlastuig jo}^ ; and the praise 



ORDEE, OF FAMILY PRAYER. 169 

and honor shall be rendered by our redeemed 
spirits to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
now and evermore. 
Our Father, &c. 

TPIURSDAY EVENING. 

O Lord, our Father, who art never weary of 
hearing and answering the prayers of Thy unwor- 
thy and too thankless children, we make bold to 
present ourselves as a family once more before 
Thee, that we may speak our poor praises unto 
Thee, and ask for those gifts and graces which 
will enable us to glorify Thee in our bodies and in 
our spirits. Make us feel now more than we have 
ever felt heretofore, that we are not our own, that 
we are bought with a price, and that we are bound 
to glorify God in our bodies and souls, which are 
His. Impress upon us the great truth that none 
of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. 
And if. Holy Father, we have this day walked by 
the rule of selfishness, if we have labored to pro- 
mote our own interests, regardless of the happiness 
of our fellow-creatures and the glory of God, have 
mercy upon us. Forgive this our folly. Expand 
our hearts by Thy love, and hereafter may we not 

12 



ITO 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



seek our own so much as the things of Jesus Christ. 
Let the love of Christ constrain us, and as He be- 
came poor, although He was rich, that He might 
procure for us an abundant entrance into everlast- 
ing glorj, so may we find our honor and our pleas- 
ure in employing our time, our means, our talents, 
in spreading the knowledge of His goodness, and in 
striving to pluck sinners as brands from the eternal 
burning. Save us from being absorbed by this 
world, from being too anxious about food and 
clothing, forgetting that a man's life consisteth 
not in the abundance of the things which he hath. 
Having food and raiment provided for us by Thy 
careful Providence, may we therewith be content, 
seeking to be rich in faith, in hope, in love, and in 
usefulness. Help us to lay up treasure in tlie 
heavens, where moth and rust do not corrupt, and 
where thieves do not break through and steal. 

But, O Lord, we trust we have not been utterly 
unmindful this day of Thy claims upon us. We 
trust that, in some measure, we have endeavored 
to do good to the bodies and souls of our fellow- 
men. If we have suffered any opportunity to pass 
unimproved, and if we have given alms or made 
prayers, or discharged any duty toward others in 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 1^1 

a careless and heartless manner, or if we have done 
these things from pride or vanity, seeking the praise 
of men rather than the honor which cometh down 
from God, 0 have pity upon us, and forgive us. 
If there have come any honor from our fellow-be- 
ings, any praise, any favor, 0 let it not puff us up, 
but do Thou take from us a high-head and a stiff- 
neck, and a heart that loveth to be flattered, and 
make us meek and lowly, humble and gentle, and 
having the mind in us which was in Christ Jesus 
our Lord. But if we have this day endeavored to 
do good, and if the labors of this and of many days 
seem to bring no fruit, encourage us by the influ- 
ences of Thy Holy Spirit that we may not despond. 
May we wait for the precious fruit and have long 
patience for it, until we receive the early and the 
latter rain, knowing that every word proceeding 
out of the mouth of the Lord shall finally prosper, 
and that He is not unmindful to forget our labor of 
love. And if, in our efforts to do good, evil and 
malicious men have framed lies against us, and our 
names have been cast out as evil, by Thy grace 
sustain us under this severe trial. 0 save us from 
abandoning the good work in which we are engaged, 
save us from bitter and faithless thoughts, and 



172 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



grant us Avisdom so to act as that tlie purity of 
our lives may refute all calumnies, and our well- 
doing may put to silence the ignorance of foolish 
men. 

And now, Lord, pronounce Thy heavenly bene- 
diction upon us before we retire to our beds. Full 
of love to God and of charity to men, with a con- 
science void of offence may we seek our pillows in 
peace, and be refreshed by the sleep of the night, 
and awake in the morning ready to do all Thy 
righteous will. Invoking Thy blessing upon all 
Vv^ho are dear to us, upon our common country, 
upon our beloved Church, and upon all who love 
the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, we commend 
our souls into Thy hands, as into the hands of a 
faithful Creator. 

Our Father, &c. 

FRIDAY MORNING. 

We would be humbled in the very dust before 
Thee, O Lord, when we remember Thy manifold 
and continued kindnesses, and our failures, and 
follies, and sins. Day by day Thou givest us 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 173 

all that we need, and vastly more tlian we de- 
serve. And yet our hearts are so hard within us, 
we are so perverted in our minds, that, while we 
have all the necessaries and very many of the lux- 
uries of life, while we are blest beyond many of 
Thy dear saints, and have a portion in this life so 
much more comfortable than that of Thine Incarnate 
Son, we are nevertheless disposed so often to mur- 
mur and complain, to undervalue the blessings we 
possess, and magnify whatever crosses our natural 
inclinations. 0 Lord, take away from us a dis- 
contented and complaining spirit. Having food 
and raiment, may we learn therewith to be content. 
Impress upon us every day that great truth that a 
man's life consisteth not of the abundance of the 
things which he hath. Help us to experience that 
godliness which, with contentment, is great gain. 
We can do nothing of ourselves. When we have 
amassed riches, they take unto themselves wings 
and fly away, but unto Thee, 0 Lord, belong the 
treasures of earth. The earth is the Lord's and 
the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell 
therein. And Thou art our God. 0 give us faith 
in Thee, and holding fast to the Saviour by a living 
faith, may we feel that in Christ Jesus we have all 

15* 



174 



THE HOME-ALTAR, 



that we need. We would not be very solicitous 
for tlie things of this present life. Make us dili- 
gent in business, frugal, careful, and liberal : give 
us what maj be best for us, and a disposition to 
trust all to the Fatherly care of our present and 
powerful God. Make us a cheerful, happy, hope- 
ful family. Save us from despondency, from weak- 
ness of faith, from darkness of mind, and from for- 
getfulness of God's manifold mercies. Make us a 
comfort to each other. May we never, even by a 
glance, a word, or an act of any kind, carelessly 
inflict pain upon each other. Teach us, while we 
strive to learn how to smooth each other's pathway 
to the tomb. May the recognized presence of God 
in this family be like celestial light. May we have 
no slavish fear of our Heavenly Father. Morning 
and night may we feel that He is in our midst, 
loving us, cheering and strengthening us, smiling 
upon parents, and children, and servants, infusing 
His love into the hearts of us all, preparing us all 
to discharge our duties in a more faithful and love- 
ly manner, and making us meet to be partakers of 
the inheritance of the saints in light. Make this 
family a type of Thy Church on earth and in heav- 
en. Lord Jesus, be Thou our Head, and make 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 175 

US all members of Thee, and help us to do everything 
decently and in order, and to be always ready to 
render our account and to be translated to the skies. 

We, who are not worthy to pray for ourselves, 
are encouraged, 0 Lord, by Thy great goodness 
and precious promises, to supplicate Thy blessings 
upon our neighbors. Many of them, 0 Lord, are 
poor and needy, and yet have not the comforts of 
Thy grace. Help us to pray for them as we 
should, to present them an example of devotion to 
God, and to teach them the way to Thee. 0 for- 
bid that any from our own immediate neighborhood 
should rise up against us in judgment, and charge 
us with having neglected their souls. Help us to 
overcome our sloth, and our unwillingness to do 
good. May we begin at once to labor more and 
more for the extension of the Redeemer's Church. 
We thank Thee that to the poor the Gospel is 
preached. We thank Thee that many who have 
little of this world's goods are rich in faith, and 
heirs of the kingdom which God has promised to 
those who love and serve Him. Multiply their 
number, and let their patient cheerfulness re- 
buke our ungrateful murmurings. We thank Thee 
also that the rich are not excluded from Thy mer- 
cy, and while wealth is so dangerous and so apt to 



176 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



destroy the piety of its possessors, that there are 
those who are humble, and holy, and self-denying 
among the rich. Continue to advance spiritual de- 
votion in high places, and add to the number of 
those vrho consecrate their wealth and all that they 
have to the cause of Him who is the giver of every 
good and of every perfect gift. Have mercy upon 
those in whose hands Thou hast placed the means 
of distributing so much happiness and of doing so 
much good, but who are spending their time in ri- 
otous living, wasting their Lord's substance, and 
treasuring up for themselves wrath against the day 
of wrath. Help us to do good to such of them as 
are brought in any measure within our influence, 
and hear our prayers for those who have no inter- 
course with us. Have mercy upon them, and be- 
got in them and in us an hungering and thirsting 
after righteousness, a wise zeal for the Lord, and 
a holy, absorbing desu-e to do good. 



Hear us in these prayers, O Thou Fountain of 
life and goodness. Help us to keep ourselves un- 
spotted from the world this day. Turn our hearts, 
and the hearts of our precious children and scrv- 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. ITT 

aDts, to Thee. Adopt every member of our family 
into Thy spiritual family, and at last may an en- 
trance be ministered unto us abundantly into Thy 
Heavenly kingdom, through Jesus Christ, our 
hope and our righteousness, to whom, with the 
Father and the Holy Spirit, shall be praises ever- 
more. 

Our Father, &c. 

FRIDAY EVENING. 

O Lord, the days are rapidly passing away. 
We are nearer the grave and eternity than when 
we last bowed together at our family altar. Are 
we nearer heaven 1 Have we so walked in Thy 
commandments, so fulfilled Thy righteous will and 
pleasure, that we can this night commit our souls 
to Thee in faith while we give our bodies to sleep 1 
0 Lord, search us and try us, and see if there be 
any evil way in us, and, as far as the east is from 
the west, so far remove our sins from us. We 
have walked in the midst of dangers this day, and 
yet our lives have been preserved. This is of the 
Lord. We could not sustain ourselves one hour, 
but Thou, Lord, hast kept us ever since we have 
had any being. Still keep us. Let us dwell se- 



178 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



curelj under the shadow of Thy wings. Help us 
to rest by faith on Jesus, to live ever looking unto 
Him, and depending in nothing upon our own good- 
ness and righteousness, but, always looking that 
Jesus Christ is of God to be made unto us wisdom, 
and sanctification, and redemption, may we have a 
holy peace and an humble confidence, and be de- 
livered in life, in death, and at the judgment- seat 
of Christ. 

Grant us wisdom. Heavenly Father, to draw 
lessons from all that hath befallen us this day. 
Wherein we have triumphed over the tempter, may 
we be encouraged ever hereafter to resist the devil. 
Let Thy gracious answers to our prayers lead us 
to more earnest and faithful supplication. And if 
we have yielded to sin in any respect, if we have 
violated the least of Thy commandments, if we 
have deviated from the purest truth and honesty 
in any of our dealings with our fellow- men, have 
mercy upon us, humble us, grant us repentance 
unto life, and the forgiveness of our sin through 
faith which is in Jesus. And may we ever here- 
after be watchful and prayerful, and guard against 
the cunning tempter, and have grace to lay aside 
every weight and the sin which does so easily be- 
set us. 



OHDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 1*79 



Help US to pray more fervently for each other 
in private, and to bear to each other not only the 
love of those who are bound by fleshly ties, but also 
by the love of those whose common Father is God, 
whose last home is heaven, and whose dearest 
Friend and only Saviour is Jesus Christ the Re- 
deemer. In the faith of the Gospel, in the hope of 
eternal life, and in the love of Jesus, make us one. 

Thou, Lord, and Thou only, knowest all our 
wants and spiritual necessities. Relieve them ac- 
cording to Thy wisdom and Thy grace.* Let 
Thy blessing be upon the wife of Thy servant. In 
all temptation deliver her, in all sorrow comfort 
her, lay Thine everlasting arms beneath her, 
spread Thy wing above her head, and let the hopes 
of Christianity be bright in her heart, and the la- 
bors of Christianity employ her hands. May she 
daily feel that she hath God's forgiveness for all 
her sins, and is bound daily to love God supremely, 
and render to Him her hearty service. Bless us 
both. Grant that, like Zacharias and Elizabeth, 

* These petitions may be omitted where they would be 
manifestly inappropriate, or may be adapted to circumstances. 
If, in the absence of the husband, his wife is leading the devo- 
tion, let her say, " Upon the husband of thy handmaid," &c. 



180 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



we may both be righteous before God, walking in 
all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord 
blameless ; and living to our lives' end in perfect 
love and harmony, may we come at last to the joys 
of Thy right hand. Grant unto our children 
healthful bodies and sound minds, all spiritual gifts, 
with sweet dispositions and holy habits, that they 
may be Thy children and joint-heirs with Christ 
Jesus to an inheritance which is incorruptible, and 
undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Regard our 
servants with Thy loving-kindness. May it be for 
their everlasting benefit that they are thus con- 
nected with our family. May we all so discharge 
our duty to them, that at the last day they may 
meet us with gladness at the judgment-seat of 
Christ. May they be Thy servants, and receive 
that honor which Thou dost bestow upon all, 
whether bond or free, rich or poor, learned or un- 
learned, who, by a pious walk and holy conversa- 
tion, adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour. 

After the example of our adorable Redeemer, 
we would most humbly beseech God our Father, 
through our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would of 
His great grace send down the Holy Spirit into the 
Church which He has planted amongst us, that all 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 181 

heresies and false doctrines, that all foolish and 
unscriptural ceremonies, that all evil and wicked 
practices, that all hurtful words and tempers may 
be driven from the Church w^hich Christ has pur- 
chased with His blood ; and that all Thy disciples 
of every name may studiously avoid all causes of 
offence, and live in the peace of God and in charity 
with each other, holding forth the word of Life, 
putting gainsay ers to silence, and drawing many 
to Jesus by their purity, and loveliness, and exalt- 
ed devotion to God. And, 0 Lord, as Thy Church 
is utterly powerless without Thy Spirit, send the 
Comforter speedily into her midst. Remove what- 
ever prevents His free communications to the 
hearts of Thy believers, and let a holy spirituality 
throughout Thy Church banish all worldliness, cov- 
etousness, frivolity, and sin. Let Thy people be 
a nation of priests, every one holy to the Lord, 
every one laboring to promote Thy cause, and ad- 
vance Thy kindgom. Especially do we pray that 
every member of our family may be a lively mem- 
ber of Thy spiritual Church, and so pass this life 
in faith, in hope, in love, and usefulness, as finally 
to come to the general assembly and Church of the 
first-born. 

16 



182 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



Hear us in these prayers, 0 our Father, and let 
our lives hereafter, if we should be spared to see the 
light of another day, correspond with the expres- 
sions of our prayers, that we may live by faith in 
the Word of God, and die in that faith, and enter 
into the joy of our Lord. 

Our Father, &c. 

SATURDAY MORNING. 

Almighty and most merciful God, our Heaven- 
ly Father, we come solemnly into Thy presence, 
upon the last morning of another week, desiring 
most humbly to confess our manifold sins while we 
acknowledge and adore Thy Fatherly goodness. 
We are reminded, our Maker and our Judge, that 
the last day of our lives is approaching, the day 
which shall end our joys and sorrows, our labors and 
our probation. We would be ready for that day. 
We would remember that that servant is blessed 
who, when his Lord cometh, is found diligent and 
watching. Help us to review the former days of 
the week, and to examine ourselves whether we be 
in the faith and in the practice of the saints. We 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 



183 



are afraid, Holy Saviour, that when we look into 
our hearts it is with too much self-love, and too 
great a disposition to excuse ourselves, that we 
magnify whatever has the least appearance of good- 
ness, and pass slightly over what is very offensive to 
Thee. But do Thou search us as with a lighted can- 
dle. Give us wisdom to see the great spirituality of 
Thy law. Take from us the folly of attempting to 
conceal a disease which must be our destruction if 
not healed. But may we be wise betimes to make 
bare our whole heart to the great spiritual Physician. 
O, cleanse us of every defilement, heal us of every 
disease, and present us spotless before Thy 
Father. Let us not go on week after week in 
carelessness as to the state of our spiritual affairs. 
However painful may be the operation for the 
present, let Thy Holy Spirit perform all His 
offices upon our souls, showing us the exceeding 
sinfulness of sin, the depth and malignity of our 
corruption, the multitude and heinousness of our 
transgressions, and the great distance we have wan- 
dered from God. Let us see all now, O blessed God, 
rather than when it shall be too late. O forbid 
that any member of our family should put off re- 
pentance to the last day of life, and then, when the 



184 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



bodily strength is gone, and the spirits fail, and 
the habits of sin are fixed, and transgressions are 
piled like mountains to the skies, — then, irhen 
Satan is so active, and eternity so near, and pain so 
great, — O then may none of us have to do the work 
of our whole lifetime. Now, even now, this very 
day, blessed Redeemer, let us all be washed in the 
fountain which was opened in the house of David 
for sin and uncleanness. Nothing else is so im- 
portant as this. What shall it profit us. Father, 
if we gain the whole world, and lose our own souls ? 
Then, on this last day of the week, draw us to Thy- 
self, help us to forsake every sin with loathing and 
true repentance, help us to come to God through 
Jesus, help us by Thy Spirit to believe with our 
hearts unto righteousness. Let the Saviour ap- 
pear to us as the fairest among ten thousand, and 
altogether lovely. Show us the fullness, the free- 
ness, the sufficiency of His salvation. Let Christ 
our righteousness be formed within us the hope of 
glory. Casting ourselves upon the mercy of God 
in Christ Jesus, may we have faith to believe 
that He hears our prayers, that He pardons our 
sins, that He regenerates our souls, that He adopts 
us into His spiritual family, and gives us a good 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 185 

hope of eternal life through the Son of His love. 
Father, forbid that we shpuld come to the throne 
of Heavenly Grace every day for weeks and years, 
and yet receive no spiritual blessing. 0, shall our 
privileges rise up in judgment against us ? Shall 
the very fullness and freeness of Thy salvation 
be our greater ruin ? Save us from carelessness 
and sloth in what concerns our souls. Make us 
earnest for salvation. May we work while it is 
called to-day, for the night cometh, when no man 
can work. Throughout the hours of this day may 
we avoid the occasions which may have led us into 
sin during the past week. Help us to shun even the 
appearance of evil, to discharge every duty prompt- 
ly and spiritually, to fill our place in society and in 
the Church of God, and to perfect holiness in the 
fear of the Lord. Grant us grace so to act as if 
this were the last day of our lives, and when the 
evening shall come — if, of Thy wonderful and un- 
deserved goodness. Thou shalt spare us through 
the day — may our consciences be void of offence 
toward God and man, may our work be done, and 
our outward affairs and the inner man of our 
hearts be set in such order, that we shall be ready 
to live and ready to die, so that to live will be 
Christ, and to die will be gain. 



186 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



May every day of our lives be spent in Thy ser- 
vice, in humble dependence upon the Saviour, in 
the duties of religion, and in the glad hopes of the 
Gospel. May "we have this testimony, that we 
please God, and that He will finally receive us to 
His glory and crown us in His kingdom, through 
the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour and Re- 
deemer. 

Our Father, &c. 

SATURDAY EVENING. 

0 God, our Creator, our Preserver, and our Re- 
deemer, we come into Thy presence at the close of 
another week to render Thee our humble and hearty 
acknowledgments for all Thy Fatherly care over us 
during the days which are passed. We thank 
Thee that Thou hast given us food and raiment and 
the comforts of home, that our lives have been 
spared, that Thou hast kept our feet from falling, 
our eyes from tears, and our souls from death. 
For all the creature comforts which we have enjoyed 
this week, for health, and friends, and safe abode, 
we desire to be very grateful. Thou mightest have 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 187 

sent pestilence, disease, or bereavement to us. 
We might have met with losses and distresses but 
for Thj watchful providence. We thank Thee for 
all our temporal happiness and success, and we 
would ever acknowledge that our hands and wis- 
dom have not gotten us all these things. We 
bless Thj Holy Name that we have received any 
assistance from Thy Spirit, to discharge our duties 
toward God and to each other, that we have had 
any spiritual strength to resist the devil, and to fly 
from temptation, that the word of God and prayer 
have been in our midst, and that still Thou art 
gracious to us. 

But, 0 Lord, in memory of our sins, it is be- 
coming *that we should make humble and sincere 
acknowledgments. And if our hearts are so hard 
and our consciences so seared that we are not af- 
fected by the thought of our short-comings and 
transgressions, have mercy upon us, and give us 
sensible hearts and quick spirits to feel that we 
have sinned and come short of Thy glory. Save 
us from the wickedness and folly of confessing sins 
the guilt of which we do not feel. But, 0 Lord, 
set our sins before us, and show us how we have 
failed in our duty. Yea, Lord, our own hearts 



188 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



already condemn us. We cannot forget that dur- 
ing the past vreek we have read and heard Thy 
word too carelessly, that we have often had the 
posture of prayer wliile thoughts of busmess or 
pleasure filled our mmds, and so our worship has 
been a mockery. We have had so many oppor- 
tunities of doing good to the bodies and souls of 
men, and yet have neglected them. Because of 
our carelessness and want of spirituality we have 
not been as useful in Thy Chui'ch as we might 
have been, we have not upheld the hands of Thy 
ministering servants, we have not comforted Thy 
saints, we have not ministered to those who are 
sick and in prison as we might have done, we fear 
we have hindered each other's prayers in the fami- 
ly, that our example to each other and to those 
who have visited us has been defective, and that in 
all things in which we have endeavored to do good 
that the motive has been selfish and not holy, that 
the love of God has not been supreme, controlling 
all within us. Father, forgive us. Thou hast said 
that if we confess our sins Thou art faithful and 
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from 
all unrighteousness. Forgive the head of this 
family his [her] want of interest in the spuitual 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 189 



welfare of all his [her J dependents. 0 enter not 
into judgment with Thy servant, but have mercy ; 
and grant that Thy goodness to Thy servant may 
lead him [IierJ to be gentle, and kind, and forbear- 
ing to all who are connected with him [herj by do- 
raestic ties. Forgive the parents of these children, 
if they have been more careful to provide for the 
bodies than for the souls of their offspring, if they 
have indulged in any temper or words unbecoming 
their responsible position. And forgive these dear 
children if they have been disobedient or unruly, 
if they have done what they know is wrong, and 
help them to search their own hearts, and to re- 
member that God does not forget. Have mercy 
upon the servants of this family. Teach them 
Tliy way. If they have gone astray from Thy 
commandments during the past week, bring them 
near unto Thee this night, and let them feel that 
the Eye of God is upon the righteous for good, and 
upon the wicked to punish their transgressions. 
We all pray for a full, free, and prompt forgive- 
ness through the merits and mediation of Thy 
well-beloved and accepted Son, Jesus Christ our 
Lord. 

And now, being justified by faith, may we have 



190 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



peace with Thee through the ever blessed Saviour 
of our souls. And may we have peace with all 
men. When we retire to rest may we have grace 
devoutly to commit our spirits into the hands of 
God, in faith. Bless us now. Breathe peace 
upon this our dear family. Give us a preparation 
of heart for the holy Sabbath. May all our affairs 
be so ordered that a perfect observance of the 
Lord's Day may reign in our habitation. In body, 
mind, and spirit may we be ready for Thy wor- 
ship. The weeks are passing rapidly away. We 
shall soon be called to our account. 0, shall we 
always live so carelessly! Stir us up to serve 
Thee. Help us to redeem the time. Bring to 
our thoughts the judgment-day and the final doom, 
but above all, draw us to serve Thee by Thy love, 
that so Thy service may be perfect freedom ; and 
while we stand in awe of Thee, because Thou art 
the great God, may our hearts be glad in Thee as 
our everlasting Saviour. 

And now. Lord, bless us all as we have need ; — 
and upon all whom we love, upon all the praying 
families of the earth, upon all who love the Lord 
Jesus Christ in sincerity, upon all Thy ministers 
at home or in foreign lands, upon all who bear 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 191 

office in the State or in the Church, upon all asso- 
ciations which accord with Thj word and labor 
for the good of men, upon our common country, 
and upon Thj Universal Church, send down the 
blessing which maketh rich, and let them all rejoice 
in Thy service, O gracious Saviour, to whom, with 
the Father and the Holy Spirit, shall be glory and 
praise, and dominion and power, now and ever- 
more. 

Our Father, &c. 



A SECOND COURSE OF FAMILY PRAYERS 
FOR THE WEEK. 

• 

[These short and appropriate Prayers have been 
taken from the Rev. S. Piggott's superb edition of the 
English Book of Common Prayer. Some alterations 
have been made to adapt them to this country and 
to the general design of the present volume.] 

SUNDAY MORNING. 

O GRACIOUS God of our lives and the length of 
our days, we bless Thee that Thou hast preserved 
us in peace and safety to this morning. We 
welcome the day of sacred rest. May the Sun of 



192 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



Righteousness arise upon us this morning with 
healing in His wings, and guide our feet into the 
way of peace. 

0, Thou Father of lights, shine into our hearts, 
and give us the light of the knowledge of Thy 
glory in the face of Jesus Christ. 

Grant to us Thy blessing on This thine own 
day, that it may be a season of mercy to our souls. 

Help us to sanctify the Lord our God in our 
hearts ; to exclude worldly thoughts and cares, 
and to meditate on Thy word. Thy works, and 
Thy love in Christ Jesus. 

May w^e go to Thy house this day as faithful 
and humble worshipers, seeking to worship Thee 
in spirit and in truth. May we receive with 
meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save 
our souls. May we seek to glorify Thee in Thy 
courts on earth, and to become meet to join the 
spirits of the just in glorifying Thee in nobler 
strains in Thy blessed courts above. 

Bless Thy ministers ; may they turn many unto 
righteousness ; and finally, shine as the stars for 
ever and ever. 

Let Thy Spirit accompany their ministrations 
this day in their prayers in the sanctuary, and in 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 193 

their publications of the glad tidings of the (jfospel ; 
maj thev rightly divide the word of truth, and give 
to every one his portion in due season. Make 
them wise to win souls ; may they save them- 
selves and the souls committed to their charge. 

Be pleased to bestow Thy grace upon all con- 
gregations, especially on that in which- we as- 
semble. Awaken the careless to attend to the 
things belonging to their peace, and to work out 
their salvation with fear and trembling, and build 
up Thy servants in their most holy faith. 

And do Thou, the God of peace, unite the hearts 
of Thy people together in holy love and concord, 
that it may be seen that Thou art in the midst of 
us, as in all the churches of the saints. 

Be pleased to hear our prayers this day, for 
ourselves and others, and accept our praises for 
all the blessings of life, and the richer mercies of 
redemption, in the name and for the sake of Jesus 
Christ, our adorable Lord and Saviour. 

Our Father, &c. 



17 



194 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



SUNDA.y EVENING. 

Gracious Father of mercies, our Creator ai.d 
Preserver, we bless Thee that Thou hast brought us 
safely to the evening of another Sabbath-day. 

We thank Thee that we have been permitted to 
offer Thee our prayers and praises in the assembly 
of Thy saints in Thy sanctuary this day. Be pres- 
ent with us this evening, and hear and answer 
our prayers in Thy tender mercy in Christ Jesus. 

Be pleased to forgive all that Thou hast seen 
amiss in us this day : the wanderings of our minds 
in Thy public worship ; the coldness of our hearts 
in our praises, and the defects of misled services ; 
awaken our desires after Thy favor and love, and 
help us to aspire more earnestly after the things 
of heaven and eternal glory. Let Thy Spirit keep 
alive in our hearts the holy flame of devotion and 
gratitude wdiich has been kindled this day. 

Engraft in our hearts the good seed of Thy word 
sown this day, and bring forth in ourselves the 
fruit of good living, to the praise and glory of Thy 
Name. 

f 1 
I J 

And now we commit ourselves to Thy Fatherly 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. lUO 

care. Let Thy angels watch around our beds, and 
grant us refreshing sleep, and be pleased to spare 
ourselves to another morning, and awaken us to 
pursue our duties with renewed strength and 
alacrity. 

Hear us in behalf of all our friends, and grant 
them and us mercies, suitable to our various wants 
of body and soul. 

Hear us for this nation, that there may be 
peace and truth in our days ; that Thy Gospel may 
have free course, and run and be glorified ; in 
converting sinners to righteousness, in purifying 
and establishing the Church which Thy right hand 
hath planted among us ; that we may glorify God 
with one heart and one mouth. 

Have mercy on all Jews, Infidels, and Heretics, 
and bring them home, blessed Lord, to Thy fold, 
that they may be saved among the remnant of the 
true Israelites, and be made one fold under one 
Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Finally, accept the prayers and praises which 
wc have offered up this day, and bless us and all 
whom we would remember before Thee at Thy 
throne of grace ; granting us in this world the 
knowledge of Thy truth, and in the world to come. 



196 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



life everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen. 

Our Father, &c. 

MONDAY MOHNING. 

O Lord, our Creator and Preserver, by Thee 
have we laid us down and slept, and have risen in 
safety. To Thee, the God of our lives, we would 
direct our prayer and look up. We would praise 
and thank Thee for the blessings of the past night. 
Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and 
evening to praise Thee, and we would join the whole 
creation in blessing, adoring, and magnifying Thy 
Holy Name. 

Hear our prayers, and accept our praises, in the 
multitude of Thy mercies, through Jesus Christ 
our Redeemer and Mediator. 

Prepare us by Thy grace and goodness to enter 
on the duties of our respective stations. May the 
holy exercises of the Sabbath extend their influence 
over us during the remainder of the week, and do 
Thou guard us by Thy grace against the sinfulness 
of our nature, and the temptations of the world, the 
flesh, and the devil. Help us by Thy strength to 
engage with courage and diligence in the business 
of life, and keep us from being overwhelmed by its 



URDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 197 

cares. May we seek first the kingdom of God 
and His righteousness, and trust to Thy good provi- 
dence to add to us all things that be requisite for 
us. Let Thy Spirit constantly admonish us ; re- 
straining us from sin, and enabling us to confess 
Jesus Christ, and to follow Him as the Captain of 
our salvation as good soldiers, and may we continue 
His faithful servants to the end of our lives. Make 
us of good understanding in the way of godliness ; 
preserve us from every unholy and unchristian dis- 
position and temper, and from all hurtful lusts 
which war against the soul ; and help us to cherish 
the godly notions of Thy Spirit, and to bring forth 
in our lives the blessed fruits of the Spirit, even 
love, joy, peace, gentleness, and every good word 
and work, to the glory of Thy Name. Graft in our 
hearts the love of Thy Name ; nourish us with all 
goodness, and of Thy great mercy keep us in the 
same. 

For this purpose, sanctify the means of grace 
used yesterday ; water the seed of Thy word, sown 
with Thy blessing, that we may walk worthy of the 
vocation whereunto we are called. Bless all our 
friends, with these and every needful mercy for life 
and godliness. 

17* 



198 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



Grant Thy blessing to this nation and to the whole 
world. 



Hear us, 0 Lord, in these our supplications, and 
prayers, and praises, and dispose the way of Thy 
servants toward the attainment of everlasting; sal- 
vation; that so, amid the sundry and manifold 
changes of the world, our hearts may surely there 
be fixed, where true joys are to be found, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Our Father, &c, 

MONDAY EVENING. 

Almighty Father, we bow before Thee with 
humility and thankfulness for our preservation dur- 
ing the past day. Thou hast kept us from danger, 
assisted us in our duties, guarded us in our diffi- 
culties, and supported us in our trials. Thy good- 
ness has spread our table, clothed our bodies, and 
provided us with a habitation to dwell in ; and Thy 
mercy hath blessed us, notwithstanding our un- 
worthiness ; and Thy love hath comforted our 
hearts. We bless Thee for all the mercies of this 
life, but above all, for the redemption of the world 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 199 



through our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of 
grace, and for the hope of glorj. Fill our hearts 
with gratitude and our mouths with praise. But 
we would humble ourselves before Thee, lamenting 
that we have not rendered unto Thee according to 
Thj mercies, but have greatly forgotten Thee, and 
disobeyed Thy laws. 

Pardon, we beseech Thee, all the sins of omis- 
sion and commission, of which we have been guilty 
during the past day, and during all our past lives. 
We supplicate Thy pardon in the name and for 
the sake of Jesus Christ, who died for us and rose 
again, and sitteth at Thy right hand, ever living to 
make intercession for us. May we so believe in His 
Name, that our faith may be counted for righteous- 
ness, and that we may obtain eternal life through 
His Name. And 0, Thou compassionate High 
Priest, who art touched with the feeling of our in- 
firmities, having been in all points tempted like as 
we are, yet without sin, do Thou freely forgive our 
sins, restore our souls, and strengthen our goings. 
Thou knowest that by the frailty of our nature we 
cannot always stand upright ; grant us, therefore, 
the help of Thy grace, that we may keep Thy 
commandments, and please Thee both in will and 



200 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



deed. Yea, do Thou keep us from falling ; enable 
us to persevere in Thy ways, to continue faithful 
to Thee, thai Thou majest at last make us meet 
for Thy kingdom , and give us an inheritance among 
them that are sanctified through faith, wliich is in 
Christ Jesus. 

Hear us, we pray Thee, for all our relations, 
friends, and neighbors. Take them and us to the 
arms of Thy mercy this night ; may Tve lie down 
in peace and take our rest ; may we be kept in 
quiet from fear of evil ; preserve us from wicked 
spirits and evil men, and may we be reminded by 
the close of day of the end of all things ; and do 
Thou stir us up to work the work of our salvation 
vvhile it is called day, before the night of death 
cometh, when no man can work. 

Hear us, 0 Lord our God, and be pleased to 
answer us in mercy, for the sake of Jesus Christ, 
our only Lord and Saviour. 

Our Father, &c. 

TUESDAY MORNING. 

Almighty God, who hast promisea that day 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 201 



and night shall not fail, we bless Thee that Thou 
art faithful to Thy covenant ; that the shades of 
the night have passed away and the morning light 
hath risen upon us. We thank Thee that we have 
slept in peace and safety during the perils of dark- 
ness, and that we have risen in safety and health 
to the light of another day. 

Accept our morning sacrifice of praise. May 
the Sun of Righteousness arise upon us with heal- 
ing in His wings, and awaken within our hearts the 
glowing feelings of love and gratitude to Thee our 
gracious Preserver. May Thy Spirit raise the 
holy flame of love to our God and our Redeemer, 
and may it animate us this morning to inquire 
"what shall we render to the Lord for all His 
mercies," and determine us to go forth this day to 
our work and labor with sincere and affectionate 
desires to glorify Thee in all we take in hand. 
May we show our love to Thee by obeying Thy 
commandments and avoiding all those things which 
Thou hast forbidden. May we detest the very 
thought of displeasing Thee. May we ever re- 
member, with reverence and fear. Thy earnest 
expostulation, " 0 do not that abominable thing 
which I hate." May we flee from sin as from the 



202 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



face of a serpent, and resolve to war a good war- 
fare, fighting manfully against the world, the flesh, 
and the devil, and avoiding the places, the persons, 
and the occasions which might tempt us to sin 
against Thee, to wound our consciences, or to dis- 
lionor our Christian profession. 

For these purposes, we humbly implore the help 
of Thy grace. Strengthen us mightily by Thy 
Spirit in the inner man. Let Thy Holy Word be 
daity read by us, and prove a light to our feet and 
a lantern to our paths. May Thy Spirit apply its 
holy instructions to our souls and bring them to 
our remembrance on all occasions, to restrain us 
from evil, and to animate us in the path of duty. 
May we firmly believe its holy doctrines, be hum- 
bled for our depravity, and earnestly apply to the 
cleansing fountain of our Redeemer's atoning blood, 
to wash away our sins, and to the Holy Spirit, to 
sanctify our hearts. May we be awed by its threat- 
enings, and rejoice in its promises, and be sustain- 
ed by its consolations. 

We confess that we have forgotten our vows 
made at baptism, and been unmindful of the cove- 
nant of our early years, and deserve to forfeit its 
privileges. But Tbou, Lord, art good and gra- 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 203 



cious, and ready to show mercy and to forgive all 
who call upon Thee in true repentance through 
Thy beloved Son. We therefore humble ourselves 
for our sins, and implore Thy mercy in the name 
of Jesus Christ Thy beloved Son our Saviour ; heal 
our backslidings, love us freely, and turn Thine 
anger from us, and enable us hereafter to walk in 
the steps and follow the examples of our Lord and 
Master. 

Be pleased to hear our prayers for all mankind, 
and especially for Thy Church militant here on 
earth. May the gates of hell never prevail against 
it. Hear us for all our governors, that they may 
fear God and work righteousness. Hear us in 
behalf of our own family; for all the members 
thereof, from the youngest to the eldest, that they 
may learn to fear, and love, and obey the Lord. 
Be gracious to all our friends and relations, and 
grant them and us the blessings Thou seest to be 
most expedient for us. 

Be pleased to accept these our imperfect prayers 
and praises, and grant our requests in Thy mercy 



204 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



for the sake and in the name of Jesus Christ our 
only Lord and Saviour. 
Our Father, &c. 

TUESDAY EVENING. 

Eternal God, the first and the last, which 
wast, and which art, and which art to come, mth. 
whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thou- 
sand years as one day, we would adore and glorify 
Thy glorious Majesty. 

We are but of yesterday, whereas Thy years 
never fail ; from eternity to eternity Thou art God. 
We all do fade as a leaf ; but Thou endurest 
through all generations. 

At the close of another day of our short axist- 
ence, we would kneel at Thy footstool, and ac- 
knowledge that it is Thou alone who preserves t us 
in life ; Thou hast added another day to our lives. 
We thank Thee for the mercies we have enjoyed 
throughout it ; we would praise Thee for the bless- 
ings of health and peace, for domestic comforts, for 
the strength to labor, and for the success attending 
our efforts. We would acknowledge that it is of 
Thee, the Lord, that we prosper ; and in ever}^- 
thing we would give Thee thanks, for this is the 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 205 



■will of God, concerning us in Christ Jesus our 
Lord. Our afflictions, our chastisements, are all 
sent in Thy Fatherly love and mercy ; even adver- 
sity and poverty are appointed by Thee for the 
wisest of purposes, for our correction, exercise, and 
amendment, and to excite us to seek after a better 
portion in a better world ; and in the present life 
Thou hast promised to make all things work to- 
gether for good, to them that love Thee. Here, 
therefore, we are before Thee, and would say, 
" Do with us. Lord, as seemeth good in Thy sight, 
only give us a mind resigned to Thy will, acqui- 
escing in Thy appointments, and bring us to that 
contentment with godliness, which is great gain. 
May we know how to want and also how to abound, 
and in whatsoever state we are, may we therewith 
be content, and trust to Thy wise and gracious 
providence." 

Though heaviness may endure for the night, may 
we hope that joy will come in the morning : though 
we sow in tears, may we trust that we shall reap 
in joy. And when all things appear against us, 
may we believe that they may be working for us, 
and that a time may come when we shall say, 
" Thou hast done all things well," and that not 

18 



206 



THE HOME-A. TAR. 



one good thing hath failed of all that Thou hast 
promised. 

We acknowledge at the close of this day that in 
many things we offend ; that our offences have been 
innumerable throughout all our lives. Our hearts 
are deceitful above all things. But to whom should 
we go but unto Thee '? Thou art a God pardoning 
iniquity and sin, and in judgment remembering 
mercy. Mercifully look upon us for the worthi- 
ness of Thy beloved Son, our only Saviour and 
Advocate. We would seek the pardon of our sins 
and Thy gracious favor through Him ; heal all our 
infirmities ; break the power of our sins over us by 
Thy grace ; create in us a clean heart, 0 God, and 
renew a right spirit within us ; deliver us from the 
bond of those sins with which we have been op- 
pressed, and bring us to the glorious liberty of the 
sons of God. 

At the close of this day we would think of the 
time when we should close our eyes on all mortal 
objects, and our bodies be committed to the resting- 
place of the grave. May we so love, and fear, and 
serve Thee, that when our spirits depart, they may 
be received to Thy arms of mercy through Jesus 
the beloved, and that our bodies may be raised at 



ORDER VF FAMILY PRAYER. 



20T 



the last day like Christ's glorious body, to live 
with Him in His kingdom for ever. 

Be gracious to all our fellow-men. Bring all 
nations to the obedience of the faith. Turn back 
the captivity of Jacob, and restore Thy people 
Israel to Thy favor. Bless our President and our 
country. Take us all under Thy protection this 
night, and encompass our friends with Thy gracious 
care and protection. May we rest in safety as the 
beloved of the Lord, and awake in safety and 
health in Thy continued goodness, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. 

Our Father, &c. 

WEDNESDAY MORNING. 

Everlasting and Almighty God, Thou seest 
all things, and observest all Thy creatures. Thou 
seest our lying down and our rising up, and Thou 
showest Thyself strong in behalf of those that fear 
Thee. Thou art the preserver of our life and 
health ; Thou givest us food and raiment, friends 
and benefactors. Thou bestowest upon us our pub- 
lic and private blessings ; Thou hast appointed us 



208 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



the means of grace, and Thou settest before us the 
prize of life immortal. We adore and magnify Thy 
Name ; may we look up to Thee with the warmest 
gratitude, and praise Thee with unfeigned lips. We 
thank Thee that Thou permittest us again to draw 
near to Thy throne of grace. It is of Thy continued 
mercy that we have been spared through the dan- 
gers and darkness of another night ; Thy goodness 
has again opened the eyelids of the morning ; and 
we acknowledge that all Thy blessings come to us 
through the merits and mediation of Thy dear Son 
our Saviour. Thou art the Holy One and the Just, 
whose eyes are too pure to behold iniquity. Out 
of Christ Thou art a consuming fire ; but in the Son 
of Thy love, Thou art a God reconciled, gracious to 
forgive the penitent ; and through Him we look to 
Thee as the God of mercies and the Father of con- 
solation. Accept our persons and services this 
morning for His Name's sake ; and, imperfect as 
they are, may our prayers and praises be gracious- 
ly received. 

As Thou hast mercifully kept us from the terrors 
of the night, so be pleased to save us from the de- 
struction that waiteth at noon. Let Thy thoughts 
toward us this day be thoughts of peace, through 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 209 

Jesus Christ, and v/liatsoever trials, troubles, or 
adventures may befall us, let Thy providence lessen 
their pressure ; let Thy grace be imparted, to ena- 
ble us to sustain them, and to hope that Thou wilt 
overrule them for our good, and in due time make 
a way for our escape from them. 

Help us to pass this day in Thy faith and fear, 
and to keep our minds from being too much absorb- 
ed by the affairs of the present life. May we not 
be too elated with prosperity, nor too depressed 
with adversity. May we not be too anxious for 
the future, reflecting that sufficient unto the day is 
the evil thereof, and believing that He who pro- 
vides for the fowls of the heavens, will not suffer 
us to want, though we be of little faith. 

May we set our faces as a flint against sin and 
every appearance of evil, and not walk in the way of 
the wicked, nor come near them, but turn aside and 
pass away, lest we become partakers of their sins. 

Thou hast showed us, 0 Lord, what is good ; 

and what doth the Lord require of us, but to do 

justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our 

God 1 Direct, therefore, sanctify, and govern both 

our hearts 'and bodies in the ways of Thy laws and 

in the ways of Thy commandments, that through 
18* 



210 



THE HOME- ALTAR. 



Thj most mighty protection we may be preserved 
in body and soul. 

Bless, 0 gracious God, our nation ; pardon our 
many sins ; awaken a speedy repentance and refor- 
mation among the people generally. Regard the 
prayers of Thy true servants, and hearken to their 
intercessions in behalf of this country. May her- 
esy, superstition, and wickedness be discounte- 
nanced and abolished. May truth and piety exalt 
us as a people. Make us Thy people, and be our 
God and defender. Bless the church to which we 
belong. May wisdom and holiness distinguish her 
ministers and her members. Bless this our family 
and all our friends, and may we dwell in love. 
Bless this town and neighborhood, and may we 
live in peace one with another. These great 
mercies we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our 
Lord. 

Our Father, &c. 

WEDNESDAY EVENING. 

Blessed be the Lord our God, that it hath pleased 
Him to bring us safely to the close of another day. 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 211 



Our years and months are determined by Thee ; 
and every day brings us nearer the final term of 
our days on earth. May we look back on the 
mercies of this day with gratitude, and on our of- 
fences with repentance. We thank Thee, Heaven- 
ly Father, that Thou sparest us, though we deserve 
punishment. Like as a Father pitieth his children, 
so is the Lord merciful toward them that fear Him. 
Accept our thanks for Thy continued forbearance 
and long-suffering ; yea, for all the blessings be- 
stowed upon us, day by day. We praise Thee for 
continued health and strength ; for food and rai- 
ment; and a comfortable habitation to dwell in. 
But especially would we thank Thee for " Thy 
unspeakable gift," Thy dear Son ; that Thou didst 
give Him up to death to redeem our souls, and that 
He is now exalted to be a Prince and Saviour, and 
ever loves to make intercession for us. 



Almighty God ! to Thee we flee for protection 
this night. We would rest under the shadow of 
Thy wings. Take us, and all our family, our 
friends, relations, and neighbors, under Thy gra- 
cious protection. Give Thy holy angels charge 



212 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



concerning us. Preserve us from the prince and 
the powers of darkness, and from the dangers of 
the night, and keep us in peace and safety. De- 
liver us from the pestilence that walketh in dark- 
ness. Preserve us from evil men, from evil 
dreams, and evil spirits. Into Thy hands we 
commend ourselves in spirit, soul, and body ; for 
Thou hast made and redeemed us, 0 Lord God of 
Truth. 

Our Father, &c. 

THURSDAY MORNING. 

Almighty God, the Father of men and angels, 
the Maker of the world, and its Preserver ! receive 
our morning sacrifice of prayer and praise. By Thee 
have we been preserved in our lying down, and in 
our rising up. We thank Thee that we have pass- 
ed another night in safety ; that no calamity hath 
come nigh us, or our dwelling. We praise Thee 
for the morning light, and we beseech Thee to pour 
on our souls the light of Thy Spirit and grace, to 
direct and keep us this day in all our ways. Par- 
don our sins, wash them away in the cleansing 
stream of our Redeemer's sacrifice, made on the 
cross for us ; wash us thoroughly from our iniqui- 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 213 



ties, and cleanse us from our sins. Strengthen us 
with might by Thy Spirit in the inner man, to ena- 
ble us to resist the temptations of the world, the 
flesh, and the devil. May we believe that thou art 
ever present with us, the witness of all we do, and 
say, and think. May Thy grace be sufficient for 
us, and Thy strength be perfected in our weakness. 

Give us a thankful sense of all Thy mercies, and 
dispose us to be compassionate of the wants of 
others. And do Thou, the Father of mercies, be 
gracious to all men ; convert the sinful ; support 
the weak ; strengthen the wavering ; raise up them 
that fall, and finally beat down Satan under our feet. 



Keep us all this day from sin and danger, and 
enable us to do those things that are pleasing in 
Thy sight. May we improve our time; seek to 
do good ; and in all things glorify our Heavenly 
Father. 

These things we ask in the name and for the 
sake of Jesus Christ, our Great Redeemer and Ad- 
vocate. Amen. 

Our Father, &c. 



214 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



THURSDAY EVENING. 

Almighty God, by whom the world is governed 
and preserved, we humbly acknowledge, that in 
Thee we live, and move, and have our being. Thy 
providence keeps us alive from day to day ; and all 
our comforts and advantages are bestowed on us 
by Thy bountiful hand. Accept our grateful 
thanks and praises for all Thy loving-kindness and 
tender mercies. We praise Thee for continued 
health and strength ; for peace, abroad and at 
home. Thou hast fed and supported, and blessed 
us this day ; but we especially thank Thee for the 
redemption of the world, by our Lord Jesus Christ, 
for the means of grace, and the hope of glory. 

Pardon our sinfulness, ingratitude, and folly in 
forgetting Thee, and transgressing Thy laws ; for- 
give the sins of the past day, through Jesus Christ ; 
and pour not Thy judgment upon us for our sins. 
Deliver us from the consequences of our follies and 
sins. Endue us with such a measure of Thy 
grace, and so strengthen our powers of mind, as to 
enable us to pass safely through our future trials, 
and to conform on all occasions to Thy will, and to 
act with wisdom and discretion, setting the Lord 
always before us. May He ever be on our right 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 215 

liand, that we be not moved. Suffer no evil to be- 
fall us this night ; let not any one approach to hurt 
us ; and interpose Thy grace that we may not hurt 
ourselves by any error or misconduct of our own. 
Give us a clear understanding of our business and 
our duties, and grant us such a measure of health 
and prosperity, as may be good for us. May we 
pass our days in peace and contentment, endeavor- 
ing faithfully to fulfill our duties, and to become 
meet for Thy heavenly kingdom ; that when our life 
comes to a close, we may depart in peace, and enter 
into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour. 

Our Father, &c. 

FRIDAY MORNING. 

Praised be the Lord, our God, for sleep by 
night. We have laid us down and taken our rest ; 
for it is Thou that makest us to dwell in safety. 
Let Thy goodness and grace follow us through this 
day. Open our hearts to receive Thy grace, that 
we may become humble, peaceable, patient, kind, 
and charitable : and let Thy Holy Spirit direct our 
thoughts, words, and deeds. Endow us, 0 Lord, 



216 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



with a lively faith, firm hope, and a fervent love, 
to Thee our God and Saviour, who daily poureth 
Thy benefits upon us, and who art preparing for us 
such good things as pass man's understanding. 

We are unworthy to obtain the least of Thy 
favors : pardon our boldness in asking these great 
blessings. Take from us the lukewarm and cold 
manner of our meditations, prayers, and praises, 
and give us delight in thinking of Thee, Thy love 
and mercy. May we meditate on the cross of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, on which He bled for our sins ; 
thankfully remember His death, and rejoice in tak- 
ing the symbols and memorials of it at the table of 
the Lord. 

May our inquiry be, what shall we render to the 
Lord for all His mercies ? May we patiently en- 
dtire every trial He may appoint ; deny ourselves, 
and take up His cross and follow Him. May we 
tread in the footsteps of His example, and at length 
come to reign with Him in His eternal kingdom. 

Hear us, O gracious God, for the sake of Jesus 
Christ, our only Lord and Saviour. Amen. 
Our Father, &c. 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 



21T 



FRIDAY EVENING. 

0 Holy Father, our Creator and Preserver, we 
come and put ourselves this night under the shadow 
of Thy almighty wings. Be pleased to bless and 
protect us this night, as Thou hast graciously de- 
fended us during the past day. Blessed be Thy 
Holy Name, O Holy Jesus, who earnest down from 
heaven, and paid for us the ransom on the cross, 
on purpose to redeem us from all iniquity, and to 
purify unto Thyself a people zealous of good works. 
We adore Thee for Thy matchless love, and we 
pray Thee to write Thy laws in our hearts, that 
we may keep and do them. Make us doers of Thy 
word as well as hearers ; bring us to become Thy 
faithful disciples and obedient subjects of Thy king- 
dom. Yea, do Thou reign on the tlirone of our 
souls, and rule in our hearts by faith. O blessed 
Spirit, the Third Person in the Holy Trinity, we 
implore Thy grace and help. From Thee every 
good thought and purpose comes, and by Thy grace 
Thou must bring the same to good effect. Do Thou 
cause us to grow in grace day by day. Do Thou 
build us up in our most holy faith. Cause us to 
die to sin and to live unto righteousness ; and by 
Thy constant influence may we bring forth fruit 

19* 



218 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



unto righteousness here, and reap the fi'uits of life 
eternal hereafter. 



0 holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, receive us 
under Thy protection this night. May we live in 
Thy favor, and come to behold Thee in Thy glory. 

Our Father, &c. 

SATURDAY MORNING. 

We desire to offer Thee, 0 Lord, the creator of 
light, our morning sacrifice of gratitude, that the 
light of heaven shines upon us again. We would 
join our voice with the whole family of heaven and 
earth in blessing and praising Thee. The sun has 
dispelled the darkness, and is diffusing heat and 
light on the world. Shine also into our hearts, O 
Father of light, by Thy Spirit, and give us to see the 
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ; and may 
we be changed into the same image, even as by the 
Spirit of the Lord. Thus may we come to resemble 
Thy likeness, and be conformed to Thee in right- 
eousness and true holiness. Teach us by Thy Spirit 
to know Thee, the only true Grod, and Jesus Christ 
whom Thou hast sent. May we confide in Thy 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 



219 



Providence, believing that our most minute con- 
cerns are known to Thee, and may be reconciled 
to whatever Thj wisdom appoints. Shed abroad 
the love of God in our hearts, that we may love all 
Thy moral perfections, and delight to walk in the 
ways of purity, goodness, and truth. We commit 
ourselves to Thy guidance this day. We are in 
Thy hands, 0 Heavenly Father. Do with us as 
seemeth good in Thy sight, and overrule for good 
all the dispensations of life. Help us to discharge 
our duties aright ; guide us by Thy counsel ; sus- 
tain us by Thy grace ; animate us with the glorious 
hopes of immortality ; cheer us with Thy promises ; 
help us to fix our eyes on our Redeemer, who, for 
the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, 
and is set down at the right hand of God, May 
we walk in the steps of His patience, and persevere 
and endure to the end, and at length come to live 
with Him in His glorious kingdom. These and all 
other blessings we ask in the name and through the 
merits of Jesus Christ, our Mediator. 



Our Father, &c. 



220 



THE HOME- ALTAR. 



SATURDAY EVENING 

We bless Thee, O Lord, for all the services of 
the past day, and of the past week, now nearly clos- 
ing. 0 Father of mercies ! have mercy upon us, 
and hear our prayers. 

O blessed Jesus ! our wisdom and righteousness, 
our sanctification and redemption, hear the prayers 
of us penitent sinners. O Divine Spirit, help our 
infirmities ; we know not what to ask, nor how to 
pray. Do Thou make intercession within our 
hearts, and be present in our desires. We would 
prostrate ourselves before Thy Divine Majesty, un- 
der a deep sense of our unworthiness. Thou art good 
and gracious, but we are vile and ungrateful. But 
0 merciful God, pity and pardon us for the sake of 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Father ! we have sinned 
against heaven and in Thy sight, but receive us 
prodigals back again ; let Thy Fatherly kindness 
meet us and welcome us back to Thee, and give us 
grace never to stray from Thy fold, nor to cast 
ourselves out of Thy house again. 

Prepare us to enter into Thy house of prayer on 
to-morrow's Sabbath ; may we go with sincere in- 
tentions and devout desires ; may our thoughts be 



ORDER OF FAMILY PIkA.YER. 221 



serious, and our behavior be reverential and com- 
posed. May we hear Thy word with a true heart, 
and apply it to our own cases ; and do Thou by 
Thy Spirit enable us to receive with meekness the 
engrafted word, that it may become effectual to 
save our souls. 0 fit us by the prayers and praises 
of this holy day, to join the spirits of the just in 
the eternal Sabbath in heaven. 

[ ] 

Hear the prayers which have been put up this 
day for ourselves ; for our friends, relations, and 
neighbors ; for our country ; for the church to 
which we belong, and for the churches of God upon 
earth. May Thy saving truth be soon made known 
to all nations, and may all flesh see the glory of 
God, and acknowledge one Lord over all the earth. 

We ask all for Jesus Christ's sake. 

Our Father, &c. 

19* 



17 



222 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



The following excellent Prayers are from the Book 
of Common Prayer of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church. 

A MORNING PRAYER. 

Almighty and everlasting God, in whom we 
live, and move, and have our being; we, Thy 
needy creatures, render Thee our humble praises, 
for Thy preservation of us from the beginning of 
our lives to this day, and especially for having de- 
livered us from the dangers of the past night. To 
Thy watchful providence we owe it,* (that no dis- 
turbance hath come nigh us or our dwelling ; but, 
that we are brought in safety to the beginning of 
this day.) For these Thy mercies we bless and 
magnify Thy glorious name ; humbly beseeching 
Thee to accept this our morning sacrifice of praise 
and thanksgiving ; for His sake who lay down in 
the grave, and rose again for us. Thy Son our 
Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. 

And, since it is of Thy mercy, O gracious 
Father, that another day is added to our lives ; we 
here dedicate both our souls and our bodies to 

* When disturbances of any kind befall a Family, instead of this, 
say, that notwithstanding our dangers, we are brought in safety to 
the beginning of this day. 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 223 



Thee and Thy service, in a sober, righteous, and 
godly life : In which resolution do Thou, 0 merci- 
ful God, confirm and strengthen us ; that, as we 
grow in age, we may grow in grace, and in the 
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
Amen. 

But, 0 God, who knowest the weakness and cor- 
ruption of our nature, and the manifold tempta- 
tions which we daily meet with ; we humbly be- 
seech Thee to have compassion on our infirmities, 
and to give us the constant assistance of Thy Holy 
Spirit ; that we may be effectually restrained from 
sin, and excited to our duty. Imprint upon our 
hearts such a dread of Thy judgments, and such a 
grateful sense of Thy goodness to us, as may make 
us both afraid and ashamed to offend Thee. And 
above all, keep in our minds a lively remembrance 
of that great Day, in which we must give a strict 
account of our thoughts, words, and actions ; and, 
according to the works done in the body, be eter- 
nally rewarded or punished, by Him whom Thou 
hast appointed the Judge of quick and dead. Thy 
Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

In particular, we implore Thy grace and protec- 
tion for the ensuing day. Keep us temperate in 



224 THE HOME-ALTAR. 

our meats and drinks, and diligent in our several 
callings. Grant us patience under any afflictions 
Thou shalt see fit to lay on us, and minds always 
contented with our present condition. Give us 
grace to be just and upright in all our dealings ; 
quiet and peaceable ; full of compassion ; and ready 
to do good to all men, according to our abilities 
and opportunities. Direct us in all our ways,* 
(and prosper the works of our hands in the business 
of our several stations.) Defend us from all dan- 
gers and adversities ; and be graciously pleased to 
take us, and all things belonging to us, under Thy 
Fatherly care and protection. These things, and 
whatever else Thou shalt see necessary and conve- 
nient to us, we humbly beg, through the merits 
and mediation of Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord 
and Saviour. Amen. 
Our Father, &c. 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the 
love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, 
be with us all evermore. Amen. 

* On Sunday Morning, instead of this, say, and let Thy Holy 
Spirit accompany us to the. place of Thy public worship, making us 
serious and attentive, and raising our minds from the thoughts of 
this world to the consideration of the next, that we may fervently 
join in the prayers and praises of Thy Church, and listen to our 
duty vjith honest hearts, in order to practice it. 



ORDER OF FAMILY PRAYER. 225 



AN EVENING PRAYER. 

Most merciful God, who art of purer ejes than 
to behold iniquity, and hast promised forgiveness 
to all those who confess and forsake their sins ; we 
come before Thee in an humble sense of our own 
unworthiness, acknowledging our manifold trans- 
gressions of Thy righteous laws.* But, 0 gra- 
cious Father, who desirest not the death of a sinner, 
look upon us, we beseech Thee, in mercy, and for- 
give us all our transgressions. Make us deeply 
sensible of the great evil of them ; and work in us 
an hearty contrition ; that we may obtain forgive- 
ness at Thy hands, who art ever ready to receive 
humble and penitent sinners ; for the sake of Thy 
Son Jesus Christ, our only Saviour and Redeemer. 
Amen. 

And lest, through our own frailty, or the temp- 
tations which encompass us, we be drawn again 
into sin, vouchsafe us, we beseech Thee, the direc- 
tion and assistance of Thy Holy Spirit. Reform 
whatever is amiss in the temper and disposition of 
our souls ; that no unclean thoughts, unlawful de- 
signs, or inordinate desires, may rest there. Purge 

* Here, let him vfho reads, make a short pause, that every one 
may secretly confess the sins and failings of that day. 



226 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



our hearts from envy, hatred, and malice ; that we 
may never suffer the sun to go down upon our 
wrath ; but may always go to our rest in peace, 
charity, and good-will, with a conscience void of 
offence toward Thee and toward men : That so, 
we may be preserved pure and blameless, unto the 
coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
Amen. 

And accept, 0 Lord, our intercessions for all 
mankind. Let the light of Thy Gospel shine upon 
all nations : and may as many as have received it, 
live as becomes it. Be gracious unto Thy Church ; 
and grant that every member of the same, in his 
vocation and ministry, may serve Thee faithfully. 
Bless all in authority over us 5 and so rule their 
hearts and strengthen their hands, that they may 
punish wickedness and vice, and maintain Thy true 
religion and virtue. Send down Thy blessings, 
temporal and spiritual, upon all our relations, 
friends, and neighbors. Reward all who have 
done us good, and pardon all those who have done 
or wish us evil, and give them repentance and bet- 
ter minds. Be merciful to all who are in any 
trouble ; and do Thou, the God of pity, administer 
to them according to their several necessities, for 



ORDER OP FAMILY PRAYER. 227 

His sake who went about doing good, Thy Son our 

Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. 

To our prayers, O Lord, we join our unfeigned 
thanks for all Thy mercies 5 for our being, our rea- 
son, and all other endowments and faculties of soul 
and body ; for our health, friends, food, and rai- 
ment, and all the other comforts and conveniences 
of life. Above all, we adore Thy mercy in send- 
ing Thy only Son into the world to redeem us from 
sin and eternal death, and in giving us the knowl- 
edge and sense of our duty toward Thee. We 
bless Thee for Thy patience with us, notwithstand- 
ing our many and great provocations ; for all the 
directions, assistances, and comforts of Thy Holy 
Spirit ; for Thy continual care and watchful provi- 
dence over us through the whole course of our lives ; 
and particularly for the mercies and benefits of the 
past day. Beseeching Thee to continue these Thy 
blessings to us ; and to give us grace to show our 
thankfulness in a sincere obedience to His laws, 
through whose merits and intercession we received 
them all. Thy. Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. 
Amen. 

In particular, we beseech Thee to continue Thy 
gracious protection to us this night. Defend us 



228 



THE HOME-ALTAR. 



from all dangers and mischiefs, and from the fear 
of them; that we may enjoy such refreshing sleep, 
as may fit us for the duties of the following day. 
Make us ever mindful of the time when we shall 
lie down in the dust ; and grant us grace always 
to live in such a state, that we may never be afraid 
to die : So that living and dying we may be Thine, 
through the merits and satisfaction of Thy Son 
Christ Jesus, in whose name we offer up these our 
imperfect prayers. Amen. 
Our Father, &c. 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love 
of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be 
with us all evermore. Amen. 



18 



229 



HYMNS FOR FAMILY WORSHIP. 



SABBATH MORNING. 

HYMN 1. L. M. 

1. Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love; 
But there's a nobler rest above ; 

To that our lab'ring souls aspire, 
With ardent pangs of strong desire. 

2. No more fatigue, no more distress ; 
Nor sin, nor hell, shall reach the place ; 
No sighs shall mingle with the songs 
Which warble from immortal tongues. 

3. No rude alarms of raging foes ; 
No cares to break the long repose ; 
No midnight shade, no clouded sun, 
But sacred, high, eternal noon. 



230 



HYMNS. 



4. 0, long-expected day, begin ; 

Dawn on these realms of woe and sin. 
Fain would we leave this weary road, 
And sleep in death, to rest with God. 



HYMN 2. S. M. 

1. Welcome, sweet day of rest, 

That saw the Lord arise : 
Welcome to this reviving breast, 
And these rejoicing eyes ! 

2. The King Himself comes near, 

And feasts His saints to-day ; 
Here we may sit, and see Him here. 
And love, and praise, and pray. 

3. One day within the place 

Which Thou dost, Lord, frequent. 
Is sweeter than ten thousand days 
In sinful pleasures spent. 

4. My willing soul would stay 

In such a frame as this. 
And sit and sing herself away 
To everlasting bliss^ 



HYMNS. 



HYMN 3. C. M. 

1. Lord, in the morning Thou shalt hear 

My voice ascending high ; 
To Thee will I direct my prayer, 
To Thee lift up mine eye. 

2. Up to the hills where Christ has gone, 

To plead for all His saints. 
Presenting at His Father's throne 
Our songs and our complaints. 

3. Thou art a God, before whose sight 

The wicked shall not stand ; 
Sinners shall ne'er be Thy delight, 
jSTor dwell at Thy right hand. 

4. But to Thy house will I resort. 

To taste Thy mercies there ; 
I will frequent Thy holy court, 
And worship in Thy fear. 

6. 0, may Thy Spirit guide my feet 
In ways of righteousness. 
Make every path of duty straight. 
And plain before my face. 



232 



HYMNS. 



HYMN 4. C. M. 

On Communion Sdbhatk. 

1. According to Thy gracious word. 

In meek humility, 
This will we do, dear dying Lord — 
"We will remember Thee. 

2. Thy body, broken for our sake, 

Our bread from heaven shall be ; 
Thy testamental cup we take, 
And thus remember Thee. 

3. Gethsemane can we forget ; 

Or there Thy conflict see, 
Thine agony and bloody sweat. 

And not remember Thee ? • 

4. When to the cross we turn our eyes, 

And rest on Calvary, 
0 Lamb of God, our sacrifice, 
We must remember Thee. 



HYMNS. 



233 



HYMN 5. L. M. 

1. My God, and is Thy table spread, 

And does Thy cup with love o'erflow ? 
Thither be all Thy children led, 

And let them Thy sweet mercies know. 

2. Hail ! sacred feast, which Jesus makes, 

Rich banquet of His flesh and blood ; 
Thrice happy he who here partakes 

That sacred stream, that heavenly food. 

3. Why are its bounties all in vain 

Before unwilling hearts displayed ? 
Was not for you the victim slain ? 
Are you forbid the children's bread ? 



SABBATH EVENING. 

HYMN 6. C. M. 

1. Frequent the day of God returns. 
To shed its quickening beams ; 
And yet how slow devotion burns ; 
How languid are its flames ! 



234 HYMNS. 

2. Accept our faint attempts to love ; 

Our frailties, Lord, forgive : 
We would be like Thy saints above. 
And praise Thee while we live. 

3. Increase, 0, Lord, our faith and hope, 

And fit us to ascend. 
Where the assembly ne'er breaks up, 
The Sabbath ne'er shall end. 

4. Where we shall breathe in heavenly air, 

With heavenly lustre shine ; 
Before the throne of God appear, 
And feast on love divine. 



HYMN V. '7's. 

1. Softly fades the twilight ray 
Of the holy Sabbath-day ; 
Gently as life's setting sun, 
When the Christian's course is rim. 

2. Night her solemn mantle spreads 
O'er the earth, as dayhght fades ; 
All things tell of calm repose, 
At the holy Sabbath's close. 



HYMNS. 



235 



3. Peace is on the world abroad ; 
'Tis tlie holy peace of God, — 
Symbol of the peace within, 
When the spirit rests from sin. 

4. Still the Spirit lingers near. 
Where the evening worshiper 
Seeks communion with the skies, 
Pressing onward to the prize. 

6. Saviour, may our Sabbaths be 
Days of peace and joy in Thee, 
Till in heaven our souls repose, 
Where the Sabbath ne'er shall close. 



SATURDAY EVENING. 

HYMN 8. 7's. 

1. Now all chafing care shall cease. 
Now worn toil obtain release ; 
With the world we now have done. 
Since " the Sabbath draweth on." 

2. This our " preparation" be : 

Lord ! our hearts we bring to Thee ; 
May they to Thyself be won, 
While " the Sabbath draweth on," 



HYMNS. 



3. At this hour, lo ! from their place, 
Myriad households seek Thy face : 
We adore Thee not alone 

That " the Sabbath draweth on." 

4. When shall earth's bless'd Sabbath break ? 
When its rest all tribes partake ? 

See the bright'ning signal yon, 
'Tis that " Sabbath draweth on." 

6. And when nature sinks in death. 

When heaves slow and faint our breath, 
Brighter than e'er day yet shone, 
Heavenly Sabbath, then draw on. 



CHRISTMAS. 

HYMN 9. C. M. 

Mortals, awake, with angels join. 
And chant the solemn lay ; 

Joy, love, and gratitude combine 
To hail th' auspicious day. 

In heaven the rapt'rous song began, 

And sweet seraphic fire 
Through all the shining legions ran. 

And strung and tuned the lyre. 



HYMNS. 



237 



3. Swift through the vast expanse it flew, 

And loud the echo roll'd ; 
The theme, the song, the joy, was new, 
'Twas more than heaven could hold. 

4. Down through the portals of the sky 

The impetuous torrent ran, 
And angels flew with eager joy 
To bear the news to man. 

5. With joy the chorus we'll repeat, 

" Glory to God on high ! 
Good-will and peace are now complete ; 
Jesus was born to die." 

6. Hail, Prince of Life, for ever hail ! 

Redeemer, Brother, Friend ! 
Though earth, and time, and life, shall fail, 
Thy praise shall never end. 



HYMN 10. S, M. 

1. Raise your triumphant songs 
To an immortal tune ; 
Let the wide earth resound the deeds 
Celestial grace has done. 



HYMNS. 



2. Sing how eternal Love 

Its chief Beloved chose, 
And bade Him raise our wretched race 
From their abyss of woes. 

3. His hand no thmider bears, 

Nor terror clothes His brow ; 
No bolts to drive our guilty souls 
To fiercer flames below. 

4. 'Twas mercy filled the throne. 

And wrath stood silent by. 
When Christ was sent with pardons down, 
To rebels doomed to die. 

6. Now, sinners, dry your tears. 
Let hopeless sorrow cease ; 
Bow to the sceptre of His love. 
And take the ofier'd peace. 

6. Lord, we obey Thy call ; 
We lay an humble claim 
To the salvation Thou hast bought. 
And love and praise Thy name. 



HYMNS. 



239 



END OF THE YEAR. 

HYMN 11. C. M. 

Morning. 

1. Awake, ye saints, and raise your eyes. 

And lift your voices high ; 
Awake, and praise that sovereign love 
That shows salvation nigh. 

2. On all the wings of time it flies ; 

Each moment brings it near : 
Then welcome each declining day, 
Welcome each closing year. 

3. Not many years their rounds shall run, 

Nor many mornings rise. 
Ere all its glories stand revealed 
To our admiring eyes. 

4. Ye wheels of nature, speed your course ; 

Ye mortal powers, decay ; 
Fast as ye bring the night of death, 
Ye bring eternal day. 



240 



HYMNS. 



HYMN 12. C. M. 

Evening. 

1. See, in the vineyard of tlie Lord, 

A barren fig-tree stands ; 
No fruit it yields, no blossom bears, 
Though planted by His hands. 

2. From year to year the tree He views. 

And still no fruit is found ; 
Then " Cut it down," the Lord commands. 
" Why cumbers it the ground ?" 

3. But lo ! the gracious Saviour pleads : 

" The barren fig-tree spare. 
Another year in mercy wait. 
It yet may bloom and bear : 

4. " But if My culture prove in vain, 

And still no fruit be found, 
I plead no more ; destroy the tree. 
And root it from the ground." 



HYMNS. 



241 



NEW YEAR. 

HYMN 13. C. M, 

1. Let me alone another year, 

In honor of Thy Son, 
Who doth my Advocate appear. 
Before Thy gracious throne. 

2. Thou hast vouchsafed a longer space, 

And spared the barren tree. 
Because for me the Saviour prays, 
And pleads His death for me. 

3. Time to repent Thou dost bestow ; 

But 0, the power impart ! 
And let my eyes with tears o'erflow, 
And break my stubborn heart. 

4. I'd nail my passions to the cross. 

Where my Redeemer died ; 
And all things count but shame and loss 
For Jesus crucified. 



HYMNS. 



HYMN 14. L. M. 

1. Eternal Source of every joy, 

Well may Thy praise our lips employ. 
While in Thy worship we appear, 
Whose goodness crowns the cu'cling year. 

2. The flowery spiing, at Thy command, 
Embalms tiie air, and paints the land ; 
The summer rays with vigor shine. 
To raise the corn and cheer the vme. 

3. Thy hand in autumn richly pom-s. 
Through all om' coasts, redundant stores ; 
And winters, soften'd by Thy care, 

No more a face of horror wear. 

4. Seasons, and months, and weeks, and days, 
Demand successive songs of praise ; 
Still be the cheerful homage paid. 
With op'ning light, and evening shade. 



HYMN 15. L. M. 

1. The God of life, whose constant care 
AYith blessings crowns each opening year. 
Our scanty span doth still prolong. 
And wakes anew our annual song. 



TTTMNS. 



243 



2. How many precious souls have fled 
To tlie vast regions of tlie dead, 
Since to this day the changing sun 
Did his last yearly period run ! 

3. We yet survive ; but who can say, 

" Or through this year, or month, or daj , 

I shall retain this vital breath. 

Thus far, at least, in league with death ?" 

4. To Thee our spirits we resign. 

Make them and own them still as Thine ; 
So shall they live secure from fear, 
Though death should blast the rising year. 



HOUSEHOLD CONSECRATIOST. 

HYMN 16. S, M. 

1. The power to bless my house 

Belongs to God alone ; 
Yet rend'ring Him my constant vows. 
He sends His blessings down. 

2. Shall I not, then, engage 

My house to serve the Lord ; 
To search the soul- converting page. 
And feed upon his word ; — 



HYMNS. 



3. To ask with faith and hope 

The grace which He supplies. 
In prayer and praise to offer up 
Their daily sacrifice ? 

4. Let each his sin eschew. 

Through Thy restraining grace,. 
Our father Abrah'm's steps pursue, 
And walk in all Thy ways, 

5. Saviour of men, incline 

The hearts which Thou hast made. 
Which Thou hast bought with blood divine. 
To ask Thy promised aid. 

6. Me and my house receive. 

Thy family t' increase. 
And let us in Thy favor live. 
And let us die in peace. 



IN AFFLICTIOlSr, 

HYMN 17. C. M. 

1. 0 God, who mad'st the earth and sky. 
The darkness and the day, 
Give ear to this Thy family. 
And help us when we pray ! 



HYMNS. 



245 



2- For wild the waves of bitterness 
Around our vessel roar. 
And heavy grows the pilot's heart, 
To view the rocky shore ! 

3. The cross our Master bore for us, 

For Him we fain would bear ; 
But naortal strength to weakness turns, 
And courage to despair. 

4. Then, mercy on our failings, Lord ! 

Our sinking faith renew ! 
And when Thy sorrows visit us, 
0 send Thy patience too ! 



IN BEREAVEMENT. 

HYMN 18. 9th. P. M. 8's & T's. 

1. Jebus, while our hearts are bleeding 

O'er the spoils that death has won, 
We would, at this solemn meeting. 
Calmly say, — Thy will be done. 

2. Though cast down, we're not forsaken ; 

Though afflicted, not alone ; 
Thou didst give, an$l Thou hast taken. 
Blessed Lord, — Thy will be done, 
21* 



246 



HYMNS. 



3. Thougli to-day we're filled with mourning, 

Mercy still is on the throne ; 
With Thy smiles of love returning, 
We can sing, — Thy will be done. 

4. By Thy hands the boon was given ; 

Thou hast taken but Thine own : 
Lord of earth, and God of heaven, 
Evermore, — Thy will be done. 



MORNING. 

HYMN 19. L. M. 

1. Awake, my soul, and with the sun 
Thy daily stage of duty run ; 
Shake off dull sloth, and early rise 
To pay thy morning sacrifice. 

2. Wake, and lift up thyself, my heart. 
And with the angels bear thy part ; 
Who all night long unwearied sing 
High praise to the Eternal Kmg. 

3. Glory to Thee, who safe hast kept. 
And hast refresh' d me while I slept ; 
Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake, 
I may of endless life partake. 



HYMNS. 

4. Direct, control, suggest this day, 
All I design, or do, or say. 
That all my powers, with all their might. 
In Thy sole glory may unite. 



HYMN 20. L. M. 

Arise, my soul, with rapture rise. 
And fiU'd with love and fear, adore 

The awful Sovereign of the skies. 

Whose mercy lends me one day more. 

And may this day, Indulgent Power, 
Not idly pass, nor fruitless be ; 

But may each swiftly-flying hour 
Still nearer bring my soul to Thee. 

Then let me serve Thee all my days, 
And may my zeal with years increase : 

For pleasant, Lord, are all Thy ways, 
And all Thy paths paths are of peace. 



HYMNS. 



HYMN 21. S. M. 

We lift our hearts to Tliee, 
0 Day- Star from on liigli ! 

The sun itself is but Thy shade, 
Yet cheers both earth and sky. 

0 may no gloomy crime 
Pollute the rising day ; 

Or Jesus' blood, like evening dew, 
Wash all its stains away ! 

May we this life improve, 
To mourn for errors past, — 

And live this short revolving day, 
As if it were our last. 



HYMN 22. S. M. 

See how the morning sun 

Pm'sues his shining way. 
And wide proclaims his Maker's praise, 

With every bright'ning ray. 

Thus would my rising soul 
Its Heavenly Parent sing ; 

And to its great Original 
The humble tribute bring. 



HYMNS. 



3. Serene I laid me down, 

Beneath His guardian care ; 
I slept, and I awoke, and found 
My kind Preserver near ! 

4. My life I would anew 

Devote, 0 Lord, to Thee ; 
And in Thy service I would spend 
A long eternity. 



HYMN 23. C. M. 

Once more, my soul, the rising day 

Salutes thy waking eyes ; 
Once more, my voice, thy tribute pay 

To Him that rules the skies. 

Night unto night His name repeats, 
The day renews the sound, — 

Wide as the heavens on which He sits, 
To turn the seasons round. 

'Tis He supports my mortal frame ; 

My tongue shall speak His praise ; 
My sins might rouse His wrath to flame, 

But yet His wrath delays. 



HYMNS. 



0 God, let all my hours be Thine, 

While I enjoy the light ! 
Then shall my snn in smiles decline, 

And bring a pleasant night. 



HYMN 24. C. M. 

Lord of my life, 0 may Thy praise 
Employ my noblest powers. 

Whose goodness lengthens out my days. 
And fills the circling hours. 

Wlaile many spent the night in sighs, 
And restless pains and woes. 

In gentle sleep I closed my eyes, 
And undisturbed repose. 

0, let the same Almighty care 

My waking hours attend ; 
From every danger, every snare, 

My heedless steps -defend. 

Smile on my minutes as they roll. 

And guide my future days ; 
And let Thy goodness fill my soul 

With gratitude and praise. 



HYMNS. 

HYMN 25. C. M. 

1. Awake, my soul, to meet the day. 

Unfold thy drowsy eyes, 
And burst the pond'rous chain that loads 
Thine active faculties. 

2. God's guardian shield was round me spread 

In my defenceless sleep : 
Let Him have all my waking hours, 
Who doth my slumbers keep. 

8. Pardon, 0 God, my former sloth. 
And arm my soul with grace ; 
As rising now, I seal my vows 
To prosecute Thy ways. 

4. Bright Sun of Righteousness, arise ! 
Thy radiant beams display. 
And guide my dark, bewildered soul 
To everlasting day. 



HYMN 26. III. 1. 

1. Now the shades of night are gone ; 
Now the morning light is come ; 
Lord, may we be Thine to-day ; 
Drive the shades of sin away. 



252 



HYMNS. 



2. Fill our souls with heavenly light, 
Banish doubt and clear our sight ; 
In Thy service, Lord, to-day. 
May we labor, watch, and pray. 

3. Keep our haughty passions bound ; 
Save us from our foes around ; 
Going out and coming in. 

Keep us safe from every sin. 

4. When our work of life is past, 
O, receive us then at last ; 
Night and sin will be no more. 
When we reach the heavenly shore. 



EVENING. 

HYMN 27. L. M. 

1. All praise to Thee, my God, this night. 
For all the blessings of the light ; 
Keep me, 0 keep me. King of kings, 
Under Thine own Almighty wings. 

2. Forgive me, Lord, for Thy dear Son, 
The ills that I this day have done : 
That with the world, myself, and Thee, 
I, ere I sleep, at peace may be. 



HY:.iNS. 



253 



3. Teach me to live, that I may dread 
The grave as httle as my bed ; 
Teach me to die, that so I may 
Rise glorious at the awful day. 

4. 0, may my soul on Theo repose, 

And with sweet sleep mine eyelids close ; — 
Sleep that may me more vigorous make. 
To serve my God, when I awake. 



HYMN 28. L. M 

1. Thus far the Lord hath led me on. 

Thus far His power prolongs my days, 
And every evening shall make known 
Some fresh memorial of His grace. 

2. Much of my time has run to waste, 

And I perhaps am near my home : 
But He forgives my follies past, 

And gives me strength for days to come. 

3. I lay my body down to sleep. 

Peace is the pillow for my head ; 
While well-appointed angels keep 

Their watchful stations round my bed. 
22 



254 



HYMNS. 



4. Thus when the night of death shall come. 
My flesh shall rest beneath the ground, 
And wait Thy voice to rouse my tomb. 
With sweet salvation in the sound. 



HYMN 29. S. M. 

1. The day is past and gone, 

The evening shades appear ; 
0, may we all remember well. 
The night of death draws near ! 

2. We lay our garments by, 

Upon our beds to rest ; 
So death will soon disrobe us all 
Of what is here possest. 

3. Lord, keep us safe this night. 

Secure from all our fears ; 
May angels guard us while we sleep, 
Till morning light appears. 

4. And when we early rise. 

And view th' unwearied sun, • 
May we set out to win the prize. 
And after glory run. 



HYMNS. 



255 



HYMN 30. S. M. 

1. Come, ye that love the Lord, 

And let your joys be known ; 
Join in a song with sweet accord, 
While ye surround His throne. 

2. The sorrows of the mind 

Be banished from this place ! 
Religion never was design'd 
To make our pleasures less. 

3. Let those refuse to sing 

Who never knew our God ; 
But servants of the Heavenly King 
May speak their joys abroad. 

4. Tlie God that rules on high, 

That all the earth surveys, 
That rides upon the stormy sky, 
And calms the roaring seas, — 

5. This awful God is ours, 

Our Father and our Love ; 
He will send down His heavenly powers, 
To carry us above. 



256 



HYMNS. 



HYMN 3L M. 

[Conclusion of tlie preceding.) 

1. There we shall see His face, 

And never, never sin ; j 
Therej from the rivers of His grace, ' 
Drink endless pleasures in. ^ 

2. Yea, and before we rise 

To that immortal state. 
The thoughts of such amazing bliss 

Should constant joys create. l 

3. The men of grace have found : 

Glory begun below : i 
Celestial fruit on earthly ground 
From faith and hope may grow. 

i 

4. The hill of Zion yields 

A thousand sacred sweets. 
Before we reach the heavenly fields. 

Or walk the golden streets. i 

I 

5. Then let our sonofs abound, I 

And every tear be dry ; i 
We are marching through Immanuel's ground^ 

To fairer worlds on high. I 



HYMNS. 



257 



HYMN 32. C. M. 

1. Now from the altar of our hearts 

Let warmest thanks arise : 
Assist us, Lord, to offer up 
Our evening sacrifice. 

2. This day God was our sun and shield, 

Our keeper and our guide ; 
His care was on our weakness shown, 
His mercies multiplied. 

3. Minutes and mercies multiplied, 

Have made up all this day ; 
Minutes came quick, but mercies were 
More fleet and free than they. 

4. New time, new favors, and new joys. 

Do a new song require : 
Till we shall praise Thee as we would. 
Accept our hearts' desire. 



HYMN 33. C. M. 

1. Thou, Lord, hast bless'd my going out, 
O, bless my coming in ! 
Compass my weakness round about, 
And keep me safe from sin. 
22* 



258 HYMNS. 

2. Still hide me in Thy secret place. 

Thy tabernacle spread ; 
Shelter me with preserving grace. 
And screen my naked head. 

3. To Thee for refuge may I run. 

From sin's alluring snare ; 
Ready its first approach to shun. 
And watching unto prayer. 

4. 0, that I never, never more 

Might from Thy ways depart ; 
Here let me give my wanderings o'er, 
By giving Thee my heart ! 



HYMN 34. 8's & Ts. 

1. Saviour, breathe an evening blessing. 

Ere repose our spirits seal : 
Sin and want we come confessing ; 
Thou canst save, and Thou canst heal, 

2. Though destruction walk around us. 

Though the arrows past us fly. 
Angel guards from Thee surround us ; 
We are safe, if Thou art nigh. 



HYMNS. 



259 



3. Though the night be dark and dreary, 

Darkness cannot hide from Thee ; 
Thou art He, who, never weary, 
Watchest where Thy people be. 

4. Should swift death this night o'ertake us. 

And our couch become our tomb, 
May the morn in lieaven awake us, 
Clad in hght, and deathless bloom. 



MORNINa OR EVENING. 

HYMN 35. L. M. 

1. My God, how endless is Thy love \ 

Thy gifts are every evening new ; 
And morning mercies from above. 
Gently distill like evening dew. 

2. Thou spread'st the curtains of tlie night, 

Great Guardian of ray sleeping hours ; 
Thy sovereign word restores the light, 
And quickens all my drowsy powers, 

3. I yield myself to Thy command ; 

To Thee devote my nights and days : 
Perpetual blessings from Thy hand 
Demand perpetual songs of praise. 



260 



HYMNS. 



HYMN 36. L. M. 

1. Saviour, when night involves tlie skies. 

My soul, adoring, turns to Thee ; 
Thee, self-abased in mortal guise, 

And wrapt in shades of death for me. 

2. On Thee my waking raptures dwell. 

When crimson gleams the east adorn ; 
Thee, Victor of the grave and hell ; 
Thee, Source of life's eternal morn. 

8. When noon her throne in light arrays. 
To Thee my soul triumphant springs ; 
Thee, throned in glory's endless blaze ; 
Thee, Lord of lords, and King of kings. 

4. O'er earth, when shades of evening steal. 
To death and Thee my thoughts I give ; 
To death, whose power I soon must feel, 

To Thee, with whom I trust to live. | 

i 



DOXOLOftlES. 261 

DOXOLOGIES. 
L. M. 

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow i 
Praise Him, all creatures here below ; 
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host ; 
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

C. M. 

Now let the Father, and the Son, 

And Spirit, be adored ; 
Where there are works to make Him known, 

Or saints to love the Lord. 

S. M. 

Give to the Father praise, 

Give glory to the Son ; 
And to the Spirit of His grace, 

Be equal honor done. 

7's. 

Sing we to our God above. 
Praise eternal as His love ; 
Praise Him, all ye heavenly host, — 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 



By following these Tables, the portions of the Scripture 
which are deemed most suitable for family reading will be 
completed in the space of two years. No Table could be 
constructed so aG to embrace the whole in one year, with- 
out making the Lessons unsuitably and unprofitably long. 

FIRST YEAR. 



CALENDAR. 



MORNING-. 



EVENINC3-. 



JANUARY 1 
2 
3 

« 4 
« 5 
« 6 
1 

« 8 
« 9 
« 10 
« II 
« 12 
« 13 
« 14 

« 15 
« 16 
« 17 
18 



Genesis 1 
2 
3 

" 4 . 
5 
6 

« 1 
8 
9 

" 10 
12 
« 13 
« 14 
« 15 
« 16 
" 17 

« 18 to V. 17 
" 18 V. 17 



Matt. 1 



3 
4 

6 to V. 21 

5 V. 21 

6 to V. 16 
6 V. 16 

7 

8 to V. 18 

8 V. 18 

9 to V. 18 
9 V. 18 

10 
11 

12 to V. 22 

12 V. 22 

13 to V. 81 



264 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 



FIRST YEAR. 



CALENDAR. | MORITOrG-. | EVENING-. 



JANUARY 19 




iVlATT. 


1 Q TT Q 1 

lo V. ol 




20 


" on 




1 A 




21 


to V. 




10 to V. Zl 


« 


22 


/i V. -i/ 




1 TT Ol 

lo V. Zi 


«( 


23 


" If) 


^^ 


lO 


<( 


24 






1 T 
1 < 


M 


25 


Z4t to V. 




lo to V. £iL 


M 


26 


" 94. TT ^9 

y. Oil 




1 Q T7 Ol 

1 o V. 41 


(( 


27 


" 9P; +r» TT 1 Q 

xo V. J y 




i y 


U 


2S 


" 9 a T7 1 Q 




on +r> TT 1 ^7 
lO V. i 1 


« 


29 


LU V. i < 




90 T7- 1 

v. i / 




30 


" Ofi TT 1 


j( 


9 1 +/-V TT OQ 

Z 1 to V. .60 




31 


" 9'7 +/-> TT Qn 

^ / lO V. ou 


,j 


91 TT 9Q 
/IV. Zo 


FEBRUARY 1 


(( o^7 _. on 
Z / V. oU 




oo +/-\ TT OQ 

zz to V. Zo 


« 


2 




^, 


22 V. 23 


« 


3 


i( 9Q +n TT 1 P% 




OQ 

zo 


u 


4 


" 9Q TT 1 Pi 


^^ 


O/l 
Z'i 


a 


5 


" on +r» TT 


^^ 


OPJ fr> TT 

ZO to V. oi 


u 


6 


" 30 V. 25 




0=i TT Q1 

ZO V. Ol 


a 




il Q1 TT OK 

o i to V. ZO 




Ofi +/-> TT Q 

ZD to V. O 


tt 


S 


<( QO +/-\ TT OA 

6Z to V. Z4 




Ofi TT Qft 

ZD V. OD 


u 


9 


" 32 V. 24 




27 


u 


10 


« QQ 




OQ 
Zo 


« 


11 


« O f 

o4 


AT 

Mark 


1 


« 


12 


oo 




z 


it 


13 


« 




Q 

o 


« 


14 


£>y 




4: to V. 


tt 


15 






4 v, 26 


u 


16 


4:1 to V. O / 




5 to V. 21 


it 


11 


« /< 1 -TT 0 17 

41 V. O / 




5 V. 21 


a 


18 


" /I 0 +r> TT 0 ^ 




A +/-> TT Qn 
u LU V, 3U 


tt 


19 


42 V. 25 




6 V. 30 


tt 


20 


43 to V. 15 




7 to V. 24 


u 


21 


" 43 V. 15 




7 V. 24 


u 


22 


44 to V. 14 




8 to V. 27 


tt 


23 


44 V. 14 




S V. 27 


u 


24 


" 45 to V. 16 




9 to V. 30 


tt 


25 


" 45 V. 16 




9 V. 30 


it 


26 


46 




10 to V. 32 


u 


27 


47 




10 V. 32 


a 


28 


48 




11 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 
FIRST YEAR. 



265 



CALENDAR. | MORNMO-. | EVEKUNTG-. 



MARCH 


1 


Genesis 49 


Mark 


12 




2 


50 to V. 15 




13 


u 


3 


•50 V. 15 




14 to V. 26 


u 


4 


Exodus 1 




14 V. 26 


u 


5 


2 




15 


u 


6 


3 




16 


u 


7 


4 to V. 18 


Luke 


1 to V. 39 


« 


S 


4 V. 18 




1 V. 39 


« 


9 


5 




2 to V. 40 


« 


10 


" 6 to V. 14 




2 V. 40 


» 


11 


6 V. 14 




3 


(( 


12 


7 




4 


t( 


13 


8 to V. 16 




5 


a 


14 


8 V. 16 




6 to V. 20 


tt 


15 


" 9 to V. 13 




6 V. 20 


u 


16 


9 V. 13 




7 to V. 36 


u 


17 


10 to V. 12 




7 V. 36 


(( 


18 


10 V. 12 




8 to V. 26 


(( 


19 


11 




8 y. 26 


(( 


20 


12 to V. 87 


" 


9 to V. 37 


« 


21 


12 V. 37 




9 V. 37 


«( 


22 


13 




10 to y. 25 


tt 


23 


" 14 to V. 15 




10 V. 25 


tt 


24 


14 V. 15 




11 to y. 29 


tt 


25 


15 




11 y. 29 


tt 


26 


" ■ 16 




12 


tt 


27 


17 




13 


it 


28 


18 




14 


u 


29 


19 




15 




30 


" 20 




16 


(( 


31 


" 21 to y. 18 




17 to y. 20 


APRIL 


1 


21 V. 18 




17 y. 20 


u 


2 


22 to V. 16 




18 to V. 31 


tt 


3 


22 V. 16 




18 y. 31 


tt 


4 


23 to V. 20 




19 to y. 28 


tt 


6 


23 V. 20 




19 V. 28 


u 


6 


24 




20 


(C 


7 


32 to V. 15 




21 


« 


8 


« 32 V. 15 




22 to V. 31 


« 


9 


33 




22 y. 81 


tt 


10 


34 to V. 27 




23 



266 



TABLE OF LES30N3. 
FIRST TEAR. 



CALENDAH. . 




EVENING. 


APRIL 


IL 


Exodus 


34 T. 27 


LCKE 


24 




12 ; 




40 


JOHX 


1 to Y. 29 




13 


Levit. 


19 to T. 19 




1 Y. 29 




14 




19 T. 19 








15 




24 




3 to Y. 22 




16 




25 




3 Y. 22 




17 




26 to V. 21 




4 




IS 




26 V. 21 




5 




19 


Nuir. 


11 to V. 24 




6 to Y. 22 




20 




11 V. 24 




6 Y. 22 




21 




12 




7 to V. 32 




22 




13 




7 V. 32 




23 




14 to T. 26 




8 to Y. 21 




24 




14 V. 26 




8 Y. 21 




25 




16 to Y, 86 




9 




26 




16 Y. 36 




10 to T. 22 




27 




17 




10 Y. 22 




28 




20 




11 to Y. 30 




29 




21 




1 1 Y. 30 




30 




22 




12 to Y. 20 


jMAY 


1 


:: 


23 




12 V. 20 




2 




24 




13 




8 




25 




14 




4 




27 




15 




5 




80 




16 




6 




81 to V. 25 




17 




7 




31 Y. 25 




18 




8 




32 




19 




9 




35 




20 




10 




36 




21 


u 


ii 


Deut. 


1 to Y. 19 


Acts 


1 


u 


12 




1 Y. 19 




2 


ti 


18 




2 to Y. 26 




3 


u 


14 


I 


2 Y. 26 


<( 


4 to V. 23 


tl 


15 




3 




4 Y. 23 


u 


16 


(1 


4 to Y. 25 


<t 


5 to V. 17 


u 


17 




4 Y. 25 




5 Y. 17 


M 


18 


!1 


5 to Y. 22 


(I 


6 


C( 


19 




5 Y. 22 




7 to v. 30 


A 


20 


1 (C 


6 




7 Y. 30 


a 


21 




7 


.' (• 


8 to V. 26 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 2)7 



FIRST YEAR. 



CALENDAR. 


MORIMNG-. 


EVENING. 


MAT 


22 


JDeut. 






Acts 


8 V. 26 




23 




9 




ll 


9 to V. 23 




24 




10 




ii 


9 V. "23 


« 


25 




] 1 




ll 


10 to V. 34 


« 


26 




12 




ll 


10 V. 34 


« 


27 


,< 


13 




ll 


11 to V. 19 


M 


28 




14 




(I 


11 V. 19 


<( 


29 




15 




ll 


12 


« 


30 




16 




u 


13 to V. 14 




31 


ll 


17 




ll 


13 V. 14 


JUNE 


1 


,1 


18 




{I 


14 to V. 19 


(( 


2 


a 


19 




ll 


14 V. 19 


(( 


3 


I. 


20 




ll 


15 


<( 


4 


a 


21 




ll 


16 to V. 14 


M 


5 


,( 


22 




ll 


16 V. 14 


U 


6 


,c 


24 




ll 


1 7 to V. 1 6 


« 




(( 


25 




ll 


17 V. 16 


(C 


3 


« 


26 




ll 


18 to V. 18 


„ 


9 


ll 


27 




ll 


18 V. 18 


te 


1 w 


« 


28 to V. 15 


ll 


19 to V. 21 




ll 




28 V. 15 


ll 


19 V. 21 


« 


12 




29 




ll 


20 to V. 17 


<( 


13 




30 




ll 


21 


ft 


14 


ll 


31 




ll 


22 


« 


15 


ll 


32 




ll 


23 




16 


ll 


33 




ll 


24 




17 


ll 


34 




ll 


25 




18 


Joshua 


1 




ll 


26 


« 


19 




2 




ll 


27 to V. 31 


(( 


20 


(( 


3 




ll 


27 V. 31 


U 


21 


t( 


4 






28 to V. 17 


u 


22 




5 




ll 


28 V. 17 


(( 


23 




6 to V. 12 


Rom. 


1 


« 


24 




6 V. 


12 




2 


(( 


25 




7 to V. 16 




8 


(( 


26 




7 V. 


16 




4 


« 


27 




8 to V. 14 




5 




2S 




8 V. 


14 


ll 


6 




29 




9 






7 




30 




10 to V. 15 




8 


JULY 


1 




10 v.l5to28 




9 



268 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 
FIRST YEAR. 



CALEKDAE. ' M0R2jING. | EvrE]]>JIiN;G-. 



JL LY 


- 


Joshua 


10 V. 2S 


Roir. 


10 




3 


" 


22 to T. 21 




11 








22 V. 21 




12 








28 




13 




? 




24 to V. 19 




14 




7 




24 Y. 19 




15 




S 


Judges 


1 to T. 22 




16 




9 




1 V. 22 


1 CoE, 


1 




10 




2 to V. 11 








11 




2 T. 11 




3 




12 




3 to Y. 12 




4 




13 




3 Y. 12 




5 




14 




4 




6 




15 




5 




7 




16 




6 to Y. 1 1 




8 




17 




6 Y. 11 to25 


" 


9 




18 




6 Y. 25 




10 




19 




7 




11 




20 




8 to Y. 22 




12 




21 




S Y. 22 




13 




22 




9 to Y. 22 




14 




23 




9 Y.22to 46 




15 




24 




9 V. 46 




16 




25 




10 


2 CoE 


1 




26 




11 to Y. 29 




2 




2 ( 




11 Y. 29 




3 




28 




12 




4 




?n 




18 


:: 


5 




SO 




14 




6 




81 




15 




7 


AL b'L ol 


1 




iO to Y. 21 




8 


a 


2 




18 Y. 21 




9 


u 


3 




17 




10 


u 


4 




IS 




11 


u 


5 




19 to Y. 22 




12 


ct 


6 




19 Y. 22 




13 


a 


7 




20 to Y. 26 


Gal. 


1 


u 


8 




20 Y. 26 




2 


tt 


9 




21 to Y. 16 




3 


« 


10 




21 Y, 16 




4 




11 


Ruth 


1 




5 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 
FIRST YEAR. 



2G9 



CALENDAR. | MORKING-. | EVENING-. 



AUGUST 


12 


Ruth 


2 


Gal. 6 


" 


13 




8 


Ephes. 1 




14 




4 


" 2 


« 


15 


1 Sam. 


1 


" 8 




16 




2 to V. 22 


" 4 




17 




2 V. 22 


" 5 


(C 


18 




3 


" 6 


<( 


19 




4 


Phil. 1 


(( 


20 




5 


" 2 


(( 


21 


" 


6 


" 3 


« 


22 


(( 


7 


« 4 


<( 


23 


u 


8 


Col. 1 


« 


24 




9 


« 2 




25 




10 


" 3 


u 


26 




11 


" 4 


ti 


27 




12 


1 Thes. 1 


« 


28 




13 


" 2 


« 


29 




14 to V. 24 


" 3 




30 




14 V. 24 


" 4 




31 




15 


" 5 


SEPT. 


1 




16 


2 Thes. 1 




2 




17 to V. 30 


" 2 


« 


3 




17 V. 30 


" 8 


« 


4 




18 


1 Tim. 1 




5 




19 


" 2, 3 


« 


6 




20 


" 4 




7 




2.1 


" 5 




8 




22 


" 6 


« 


9 




23 


2 Tim. 1 


(( 


10 




24 


" 2 


K 


11 




25 


" 3 


it 


12 




26 


" 4 


ti 


18 




27 


Titus 1 


« 


14 




28 


" 2,3 




15 




29 


Philemon 


« 


16 




80 


Heb. 1 


(( 


17 




31 


" 2 


<l 


18 


2 Sam. 


1 


" 3 


<( 


19 




2 


" 4 


« 


20 




3 


" 5 




21 




4 


6 



2T0 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 
FIRST YEAR. 



CALEITDAR. | MOSHIKG-. | EVEIQIKG. 



STTPT 


22 


2 Sajj:. 


5 


Heb 7 


(i 


23 
24 


,( 


g 


" 8 
" 9 




25 


,j 


s 






26 




9 


" 11 


„ 


27 




10 


" 12 




2S 






" 13 


(C 


29 




12 




(( 


80 




J. O \j\J V . ^iJ 


" 2 


OCTOBER 


1 


K 


18 Y. 23 






2 


,£ 


14 


" 4 




3 


,1 


15 


" 5 


«( 


4 


u 


16 


1 Pet. 1 


« 


5 


J, 


17 


" 2 




6 




18 


*' 3 


It 






19 to Y. ] 6 


" 4 


ft 


s 


u 


19 V. 16 


" 5 


tc 


9 




20 


2 Pet. 1 


u 


10 




21 


9 


« 


] 1 


.J 


22 


" 3 


U 


12 


a 


23 




tl 


1 8 




24 




u 


14 


1 EiNGS 


1 to T. 28 


" 3 


(( 


15 




1 V. 28 




u 


16 


,( 


2 to Y 26 


o 


(( 


17 


ft 


2 V. 26 


9 ^ Tnxj -NT 
^> O uUxlJN 


(( 


18 


£( 


3 




(( 


19 




4 


Rey. 1 


(C 


20 


« 


5 


" 2 


u 


21 




6 


O 


u 


22 






" 4 5 


« 


23 




8 


" 6 


(( 


24 




9 


" 7 


(( 


25 




10 


" 8- 




26 




11 to V. 26 


" 9 


« 


27 




11 V. 26 


" 10 


« 


28 




12 


" 11 


(( 


29 




13 


" 12 


(( 


SO 




14 


" 13 


C( 


81 




15 


" 14 


NOV. 


1 




16 


" 15 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 
FIRST YEAR. 



271 



OaLEIvDAR. I MOHKINGS-. | EVEWIiVG. 



NOVEM. 


2 


1 Kings 


17 


Re^^. 


16 




3 




IS 




17 




4 




19 


u 


18 




5 




20 to V. 22 


u 


19 


« 


C 




20 V. 22 


u 


20 




1 


« 


21 




21 


<( 


8 




22 to V. 29 




22 


« 


9 




22 V. 29 


Psalm 


1 


« 


10 


2 Kings 


1 




2 




11 




2 


« 


3 


u 


12 




3 


ic 


4 




13 




4 




6 




14 




5 




7 


(1 


15 


« 


6 




8 


K 


16 




7 




9 


U 


17 




8 




10 


(( 


18 


« 


9 


« 


11 


(( 


19 




10 




12 


u 


20 


It 


11 




13 


<( 


21 


« 


12 




14 


(( 


22 




13 


« 


15 


u 


23 


« 


14 




16 


<( 


24 




15 




17 




25 


(1 


16 




1 8 to V. 24 




26 


u 


17 to V. 24 


<£ 


] 8 V. 24 


« 


27 


u 


17 V. 24 


U 


19 


u 


28 


,i 


18 


ti 


20 


(1 


29 


a 


19 to V. 20 


a 


21 


<( 


30 


u 


19 V. 20 


u 


22 to V, 18 


DECEM. 


1 


u 


20 


u 


22 V. 18 


u 


2 




21 




23 




3 




22 




24 




4 


(< 


23 




25 




5 




24 




26 


(( 


6 




25 




28, 29 


« 


7 


Ezra 


1 




30 




8 




3 




81 




9 


« 


4 




32 




10 




5 




33 


(( 


11 




6 




34 


(( 


12 




7 




35 



272 TABLE OF LESSONS. 

FIRST YEAR. 



OALENDAH. | MORraHG. | EVEWIi\!"G-. 



DECEiL 


13 


EZEA 


8 V. 21 


FsALii 86 




14 




9 


" 87 to V. 22 


« 


15 


Nekemiah 1 


" 87 V. 22 


« 


16 




2 


" 38 


tt 


17 




4 to V. 18 


" 39 


« 


18 




4 V. 13 


" 40 


<( 


19 




5 


" 41 


M 


20 




6 


" 44 


(( 


21 




8 


" 45 


« 


22 


ti 


9 


" 46 




23 




10 


" 47 


« 


24 




13 


" 49 


« 


25 


Matthew 2 


Psalm 42 


ft 


26 


Psalm 


110 & 111 


" 50 


(( 


27 


Esther 


1 


" 51 


U 


28 




2 


" 52 




29 




3 


" 53, £4 


u 


SO 




4 


" 55 


<( 


31 




5 


" 56 


SECOND YEAR. 


GALEKDAR. 


1 MOF.IvmG-. 


EVEI-3NS-. 


JANUARY 


1 


Esther 


6 


FSALM 57 




2 




7 


" 68 




3 




8 


" 59 


« 


4 




9 to V. 20 


60, 61 


<( 


5 




9 V. 20 


" 62 


cc 


6 


Job 


1 


" 63 


« 


7 




2 


64 


(( 


8 




3 


" 65 


(( 


9 




4 


" 68 to V. IS 


« 


10 




5 


69 to V, 19 


a 


11 




6 


*' 69v. l'J&.7L 


et 


12 




7 


" 7o 




13 




8 


« 71 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 
SECOND YEAR. 



273 



CALENDAR. | 



MORNING-. 



EVENING-. 



JANUARY Il- 
ls 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
2G 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 

FEBRUARY 1 
2 
3 
4 

« 5 
6 
7 

. 8 
9 

10 
11 

12 

" 13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 

« 21 
22 

« 23 



Job 9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 

" 24, 25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 
36r 
37 
38 
39 
40 
41 
42 

Proverbs 1 to v. 20 
1 V. 20 
2 
3 
4 
5 

6 to V. 20 
6 V. 20 



Psalm 72 
73 
74 



24 



76 
77 

78 to V. 
79 

80 

81, 83 
83 
85 
86 



89 to V. 1 9 
89 V. 19 
90 
91 

92, 93 

94 

95 

96 

97 

98 

99 
100 
101 

102 to V. 15 
102 V. 15 
103 

104 to V. 15 

104 V. 15 
lOo to V. 22 

105 V. 22 

106 

107 to V. 31 
107 V. 31 (felOS 
109 

110, 111 
112, 113 
114, 115 



2T4 



TA^LE OF LESSONS. 
SECOND YEAR. 





ivicMvrrKG-. 


EVENING-. 


■CTTPRTT 


0 1 


Peoteubs 7 




PsA. 116, 117 




OK . 




8 




" lis 




2d I 




9 




" 119 to v. 24 




O T 
_ I 




10 




" 119 toy. 48 








11 




" 119 to y. 72 


\T \ p PTT 


1 

1 




12 




" 119 to y. 96 




o 




13 




" 119 to y. 120 




q 
o 




14 to 


V. 16 


" 119 to y. 144 


« 


A 




14 V. 


16 


" 119 to y. 176 




c 
0 




15 to 


V. 21 


" 120, 121, 123 


M 


6 




15 y. 


21 


" 124, 125. 126 


M 


i 




16 




" 128,129,130.131 


(( 


o 
Q 




17 to V. 15 


" 182, 133, 184 


M 


Q 

y 




17 T. 


15 


" 135 


« 


iU 




18 




'= 136 


ft 


li 




19 




" 137, 138 




1 o 




20 




" 139 


K 


1 Q 

lo 




21 to 


Y, 17 


" 140, J41 




1 J. 




21 V. 


17 


" 142,143 


« 


1 

iO 




23 to V. 22 


" 144 


M 


1 ft 




23 T. 


22 


145 


ft 


i i 




24 




146, 147 toy. 11 


U 


10 




25 




" 147 y. 11 (t 148 


it 


19 




26 




149, 150 


U 


911 
ZiU 




27 




ilATT. 1 


U 


21 




28 




2 


« 


22 




29 




3 


u 


zo 




81 




" 4 to y. 17 


u 




ECCLZS. 


1 




4 y. 17 


u 


9^1 




2 




" 5 to y. 21 


a 


26 




3 




6 to y. 16 


u 


27 




4 




" 6 y. 16 


(( 


2S 


11 


5 




'■ 7 


u 


29 




6 




" 8 to y. 18 


it 


30 




7 




8 y. 18 


« 


31 




8 




9 to y, 18 


APRIL 


1 


(C 


9 




9 y. 1 8 








10 




" 10 




8 




11 




" 11 




4 




12 




" 12 to V. 22 


a 


5 


Jekemiah I 




" 12v. 22 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 
SECOND YEAR. 



2T5 



CALENDAR. 



MORKING-. 



EVENING. 



APRIL 



10 
11 

12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
80 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 



Jeremiah 2 to v. 20 
2 V. 20 
3 

4 to V. 19 
4 V. 19 
5 

" 6 

7 to V. 21 
7 V. 21 



10 
11 

12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25, 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 
36 
37 
38 



Matt. 13 
13 
14 
14 
15 
15 

" 16 

17 
18 
19 
19 
20 
20 
21 
21 

" 22 
« 22 
23 
23 
24 

« 24 
25 

" 25 
26 
26 
27 
28 

Hebeews 1 



Mabk 



276 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 
SECOND YEAR. 



CALEKDAR. ] MORNING. | EVENlNa. 



MAY 


11 


Jerem. 


40 


Mark 


2 




18 


" 


41 




3 




19 




42 




4 to V. 26 




20 




43 


" 


4 V. 26 


t( 


21 




44 




5 to V. 21 


(( 


22 




45, 46 




5 V. 21 


<( 


23 




47 




6 to V. 30 


" 


24 




48 to V. 25 




6 V. 80 


ii 


25 




48 V. 25 




7 to V. 24 


« 


26 




49 to V. 23 




7 V. 24 




27 




49 V. 23 




8 to V. 27 




2S 




50 to V. 21 




8 V. 27 




29 




50 V. 21 




9 to V. 30 




30 




51 to V. 35 


" 


9 V. 30 




31 




51 V. 35 




10 to V. 32 


JUNE 


1 




52 


« 


10 V. 32 


a 


2 


Lamen. 


1 




11 


" 


3 


" 


2 




12 to V. 28 


(( 


4 




3 to V. 37 




12 V. 28 


u 


5 




3 V. 37 




13 


(( 


6 




4 




14 to V. 26 


(( 


7 




5 




14 V. 26 


(( 


8 


EZEKIEL 


1 




15 


« 


9 




2 




16 




10 




8 


Romans 


1 


« 


11 




6 




2 


(( 


12 




7 




8 


K 


13 




13 




4 


<( 


14 


(I 


14 




5 


« 


15 




18 to V. 19 




6 


« 


16 




18 V. 19 




1 


« 


17 




33 to V. 21 




8 


(( 


18 




33 V. 21 


« 


9 


(( 


19 




84 




10 


u 


20 


Daniel 


1 


<( 


11 


u 


21 




2 to V. 24 




12 


« ^ 


22 


•£ 


2 V. 24 




13 


u 


23 


(( 


3 


(( 


14 


u 


24 


<k 


4 




15 


« 


26 




5 


it 


16 




26 


i 


6 


Luke 


1 to V. 39 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 
SECOND YEAR. 



2TT 



CALENDAR. \ MORNING. | EVENING-. 



JUNE 


21 


Daniel 


1 


Luke 


1 V. 39 




28 




8 




2 to V. 40 




29 




9 




2 V. 40 




30 




10 




8 


JULY 


1 




11 




4 . 


(I 


2 




12 


« 


5 


li 


3 


HOSEA 


1 




6 to y. 20 


(( 


4 




2 




6 V. 20 




5 


" 


3 




7 to V. 36 




6 




4 




7 V. 36 








5 




8 to V. 26 




8 




6 




8 V. 26 


« 


9 




1 




9 to V. 37 




10 




8 




9 V. 37 




11 




9 




10 to V. 25 




12 


" 


10 




10 V. 25 


« 


13 




11 




11 to V. 29 


u 


14 




12 




11 V. 29 


il 


15 




13 




13 




16 




14 




14 




1*7 


Joel 


1 




15 




18 




2 to V. 15 




16 


« 


19 




2 V. 15 




17 to V. 20 




20 




3 




18 to V. 31 




21 


Amos 


1 




18 V. 31 




22 


a 


2 




19 to V. 28 




23 


" 


3' 




19 V. 28 


« 


24 




4 




20 


it 


25 




5 




21 


(( 


26 




6 




22 to V. 81 


(( 


21 




1 


<( 


22 V. 31 


(( 


2S 




8 


(I 


23 


(( 


29 




9 




24 


(( 


30 


Obadiah 




1 Cor. 


1 




31 


Jonah 


1 




2 


AUGUST 


1 


(C 


2 


(( 


3 




2 




3 




4 




3 




4 




5 


u 


4 


Micah 


1 




6 


u 


5 




2 




7 


H 


6 




8 


it 


8 



278 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 
SECOND YEAR. 



CALENDAR. 



MORNING-. 



EVENING-. 



JGUST 


7 


MiCAH 


4 


1 Cor. 


9 




S 




5 




10 




9 




6 




11 




10 




7 




12 




11 


Nahum 


1 




13 




12 




2 




14 




13 




3 




15 




14 


Hab. 


1 




16 




15 




2 


John 


1 to V. 29 




16 




S 




1 V. 29 




17 


ZEPa. 


1 




2 




18 




I 




3 to V. 22 




19 




3 




3 V. 22 




20 


Haggai 


1 




4 




21 








5 


** 


22 


Zechar. 


1 




6 to V. 22 


** 


23 




2 




6 V. 22 


' 


24 




3 




7 to V. 32 




25 




4 




7 V. 82 




26 




5 




8 to V. 21 




27 




6 




8 V. 21 




2S 




7 




9 




29 


" 


8 




10 to V. 22 




30 




9 




10 V. 22 




31 




10 




11 to V. 30 


PTEM. 


1 




11 




11 V. 30 




2 




12 




1 2 to V 20 




3 




13 




12 V. 20 




4 




14 




13 




5 


Malachi 


1 




14 




6 




2 




15 


« 


7 




3 




16 




8 


(( 


4 




17 




9 


Isaiah 


1 




18 




10 


(( 


2 




19 


« 


11 


(C 


8 


C! 


20 


it 


12 


(( 


4 




21 


a 


13 




5 


2 Cor. 


1 


it 


14 


(( 


6 




2 


« 


15 




7 




S 




16 




8 




4 



279 



SECON'D YEAR. 





IVTOHITII'IG-. 


2 




EPTEM. 


17 


ISAIAII 9 


2 Co a. 






18 


" 10 to V. 20 




6 


,( 


19 


" 10 V. 20 




7 




20 


11 




8 


,1 


21 


22 


a 


9 


<t 




'•' ' 3 




K) 




23 


14 




11 




24 


i5 


« 


12 


a 




16 




13 




25 


17 


Acts 


1 


,. 


27 


18 




2 


; 


2S 


" 19 




3 






' £0, 21 


(( 


4 to V. 23 




30 


22 


(( 


4 V. 23 




1 , 


" 23 


u 


5 to V. 17 




2 


'■ 24 




5 V. 1.7 




3 


24 




6 




4 


" 25 




7 to V. 30 


■J 


5 


26 




7 V. 30 




6 


" 27 


•£ 


J to V. 26 


<( 


7 


" 28 




S V. 26 




8 


- 2c 




9 to V. 23 




9 


" 20 


( 


9 V. 23 




10 


31 




1 0 to V. 34 




11 


" 32 


<. 


10 V. 34 




12 


" 33 




11 to V. 19 


a 


13 


34. 


«. 


11 V. 19 




14 


" 85 




12 




15 


" 3C 


'I 


13 to V. 14 




16 


*• 37 


a 


13 V. K 




17 


3S 




14 to V. 19 




18 


39 




14 V. 19 




19 


" 40 




15 




20 


41 




16 to V. U 




21 


42 




16 V. 14 




22 


43 




17 to V. U- 




23 


44 




17 V. 16 


« 


24 


45 




18 to V. 18 




2o 


45 


(I 


18 V. IS 


« 


26 


i " 47 




19 to V. 21 




27 


■ " 48 




19 V. 21 



280 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 
SECOND YEAR. 



CALENDAR. I MORNING-. | EVENING. 



OCTOBER 


28 


Isaiah 


49 




Ac- 


20 to V. 17 




29 




50 






20 V. 17 




30 




51 




« 


21 


(( 


31 


a 


52 






22 


NOVEMB. 


1 


u 


63 






28 




2 


u 


54 






24 


(( 


3 




55 






25 




4 


,< 


56 




(C 


26 


« 


5 




67 




u 


27 to V. 21 


u 


6 


u 


58 




a 


27 V. 21 


(C 




it 


69 




(( 


28 to V. 11 


l( 


s 


,( 


60 




a 


28 V. 17 


» 


9 




61 




Galat. 


1 


(( 


10 


« 


62 






2 


C( 


11 




63 




« 


3 


(C 


12 




64 






4 


li 


13 


„ 


65 




ct 


5 


il 


14 




66 




u 


6 


u 


15 


1 Sam. 


1 




EpHES. 


1 


11 


16 










2 


«i 


17 


» 


3 




(t 


3 


(( 


18 


(I 


4 






4 


(( 


19 


a 


5 






5 


« 


20 


K 


6 






6 




21 


u 


7 




Philip. 


1 




22 


u 


8 






2 


« 


23 




9 




tt 


3 




24 




10 




(t 


4 


u 


25 


<t 


11 




Colds. 


1 


(( 


26 




12 






2 


(( 


27 


it 


13 




u 


3 


It 


28 




14 to V, 24 




4 




29 




14 V. 


24 


James 


1 




SO 




15 






2 


DECEMB. 


1 




IG 






3 




2 




17 to 


V. 30 




4 




3 




17 V. 


30 




5 




4 




IS 




1 John 


1 


« 


5 




19 




(( 


2 


« 


6 




20 






8 




7 




31 






4 



TABLE OF LESSONS. 



281 



SECOND YEAR. 



CALENDAR. | MORyjUSTG-. | EVEWLNTG-. 



CEMB. 


s 


2 Sam. 


1 


1 John 


0 


" 


9 




5 


2, 3 John 




10 


J OSHUA 


1 


Revel. 


1 




11 


" 


2 




2 


« 


12 




o 




3 




13 




4 




4, 5 




14 




5 




6 




15 




6 to V. 12 




7 


« 


16 




6 V. 12 




8 




17 




7 to V. 16 




9 


(( 


18 




7 V. 16 




10 


<( 


19 




8 to V. 14 


ti 


11 




20 




8 V. 14 




12 


« 


21 




9 




13 


« 


22 




10 to V. 15 




14 




23 




lOv.15 to28 




15 


(C 


24 




22 to V. 21 




16 


C( 


25 


Ps. 45 & IsA. 9 to V. 8 


Luke 


2 to 


« 


2(3 


Joshua 


22 V. 21 


Revel. 


17 


(C 


27 




23 




18 




2S 




24 to V. 19 




19 




29 




24 V. 19 




20 


(C 


30 


Exodus 20 




21 


(( 


31 


ECCLES. 12 


(( 


22 



